


Bug Hunt

by TheEigthPillarGeneral



Series: Semper Fi [2]
Category: Alien Series, Aliens (1986), Bleach
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Androids, Colonial Marines - Freeform, Gen, Horror, Violence, Weyland-Yutani, Xenomorphs (Alien)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-10-30 11:42:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17827907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEigthPillarGeneral/pseuds/TheEigthPillarGeneral
Summary: Four years after Renji's encounter with the aliens and his transfer to his new unit, an off-planet Weyland-Yutani research facility suddenly goes offline. Renji and his unit are prompted into action and accompanied by two Weyland-Yutani scientists to investigate the facility.But upon arrival, they discover only one survivor, and Renji is confronted with his worst nightmares: the alien creatures that wiped out his entire unit four years ago have overrun the facility. And to make matters even worse, one of the scientists is running his own agenda regarding the aliens.Faced with the fact that they only have four hours till the facility blows up, that even their own impressive firepower may not be enough, and that they have been deemed expendable, Renji is put to the test and pushed to his very limits as he struggles to outsmart the creatures and help everyone survive the living hell they've found themselves in.





	1. Another Glorious Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Renji wakes up from cryosleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a multi-chapter story based on Aliens, my favourite movie of all time. In terms of setting, it takes place in the 22nd century, and there will be quite a few references to the Alien franchise. I hope you all enjoy!

Waking up from cryosleep is a real bitch. Even though he’s done it enough number of times, it’s not a very pleasant feeling.

Renji can’t even remember what he’d been dreaming about, only some vague memories linger-- warm summer nights, the feeling of gravel beneath his bare feet, the sounds of cicadas. Then it’s gone, and the halogen lights of the ship are bearing down on him as he slowly opens his eyes. There is a sensation of grogginess and a dry taste in his mouth, but it’s nowhere as bad as it had been the first time.

Renji slowly sits up, rubbing the back of his neck to get the blood flowing. A shiver runs through him since he’s only in his underwear, just like everyone else, and it’s kind of chilly. He can hear a few mumbles of _fuck_ and _shit_ because God knows it’s too early to think of anything else to say.

“They ain’t payin’ us enough for this, man,” Private First Class and smartgunner Muguruma Kensei grumbles as he sits up.

“Yeah, not enough to have to wake up to your face, Muguruma,” Corporal and combat medic Soifon says, sounding a little aggravated.

“What? Was that a joke?”

“Oh, I wish it were.”

Ignoring her, Muguruma looks at Renji. “Oi, Abarai,” he says. “Man, you look just like I feel.”

Before Renji can reply, Sergeant Zaraki interrupts them. He’s climbed out of his cryopod and has a cigar in his mouth already. “Alright, sweethearts, what’re you all waiting for? Breakfast in bed?” He grins as he strolls by the cryopods.

“Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm.” He gives Renji a nod as Renji climbs out. “Every meal’s a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade, I _love_ the Corps!”

“Man, this floor’s freezing!” That’s Bazz-B, Private First Class and combat technician.

“What do you want me to do, fetch your slippers for you?” Zaraki asks.

“Gee, would you sir? I’d like that!” Bazz-B snarks back.

“Yeah, I’m sure you would. Fall in, people! Come on! Let’s roll!” Zaraki barks.

“I hate this job…” Private First Class Hisagi Shuuhei mutters.

Renji takes care of his usual toiletries in the shower facilities, listening to the others grumbling and gradually waking up. When he reaches his locker, he frees his hair from its braid, combing his fingers through his hair before he starts getting dressed. First he puts on his black tank top, then slides on his army-green cargo fatigue pants, and then puts on his socks and black industrial boots.

“First assembly’s in fifteen, people! Shag it!” Zaraki orders.

As Renji is brushing his hair, he hears the familiar grunts of effort from their other smartgunner, Private First Class Franceska Mila Rose. Unsurprisingly, she’s already doing chin-ups, but then he hears her asking about their two civilian guests on-board: Ise Nanao and Kurotsuchi Mayuri. Or, as she calls them, ‘Snow White’ and ‘the other one’.

“They’re supposed to be scientists for WeYu. Apparently, they insisted on coming along with us to make sure we don’t damage anything,” Corporal Yadomaru Lisa, their dropship pilot, says to Bazz-B and Mila Rose.

Renji briefly glances over at their guests and sees Ise putting on her coveralls and pinning her hair up. Meanwhile, Kurotsuchi is already dressed and is just looking over each Marine as if they’re specimens in a petri dish. Renji turns away to brush his hair, and then he feels Kurotsuchi’s gold eyes on him.

He can almost feel his skin crawl. Kurotsuchi puts him on edge, and Renji doesn’t like it. He’s heard enough horror stories about Weyland-Yutani that he’s willing to believe anything he hears about them, and he wonders why Rukia still works for them anyways. Not like he has room to talk, since he ships out for them sometimes, but still.

Renji has just finished tying his hair into a low ponytail that falls over his right shoulder when he hears Bazz-B speaking.

“Hey, Mila Rose,” Bazz-B says. “You ever been mistaken for a man?”

“Nope,” Mila Rose says, dropping down from the chin-up bar. She glances at Bazz-B. “Have you?”

Muguruma snickers. “Damn, Mila Rose,” he says with a grin, clapping her hand with his when she holds it up. “You’re just too bad.”

Mila Rose smirks and playfully swats his face.

Renji just shakes his head. Those two are like Dobermans.

Yet even he can’t contain the chuckle that escapes him as he takes off to the mess hall for breakfast.

The JSS _Gonryomaru_ is an impressive ship. A _Conestoga_ -class starship, manufactured by Weyland-Yutani, it’s one of the many starships used by the Gotei Colonial Marines for deep-space missions. After all, they’re big enough to carry personnel, equipment, and vehicles all in one.

Renji takes a tray and gets some breakfast from the food processor machine, along with a glass of orange juice. It's not the best food he's had, but he's had worse, honestly. But then again, he's also had better.

He takes a seat between Hisagi and Private First Class Kira Izuru, who is also the co-pilot for the dropship.

At a table towards the back of the mess hall, their commanding officer, Lieutenant Sasakibe Chojiro, sits with Ise and Kurotsuchi. Akon, their unit synthetic, is busy serving breakfast to everyone.

“Hey, Top, what’s the op?” Bazz-B asks as he sits down.

Zaraki grins. “It’s a rescue mission, you’ll love it! There’s some juicy lady scientists we gotta rescue from their virginity,” he says, earning laughs from everyone except Renji.

Renji just glances down at his tray as he remembers the basic gist he’d gotten about the mission before going into cryosleep.

A Weyland-Yutani research facility, called Hokutan, has gone offline, so Renji’s unit has been sent out to investigate. Located on LV-352, a planetoid in the Zeta Reticuli System, it is ways away from Earth. The trip had taken three weeks, though it feels like hardly any time has passed, thanks to cryosleep.

However, even in the days leading up to shipping out, old memories were resurfacing. Renji doesn’t know why, but he has a horrible feeling about this mission, especially when he recalls the possibility that ‘extraterrestrial life-forms may be involved’. He’s no stranger to bug hunts, but… what if this isn’t just a bug hunt?

Memories of Iwashiro flash through Renji’s mind. Within less than 24 hours, his previous unit had been wiped out by the physical manifestation of all his childhood nightmares. There’s no other way to describe those fucking things. It’s been four years since it happened and Renji still has nightmares about it.

They aren’t as bad as they used to be these days. Getting back into combat and back into fighting an enemy he can handle has helped, since most of Renji’s recent missions have either been Earth-bound or within the immediate Sol System, but they still linger. Hell, just a few days before shipping out, Renji had woken up from a horrible one about a chestburster inside of him.

He’s only glad he didn’t have a nightmare like that in cryo. Either way, he has a bad feeling. But maybe if he recounts his experience to the others at briefing, he’d feel a bit better.

“What’s this crap supposed to be?” Kira asks, irritated, after taking a bite of the cornbread.

“Cornbread, I think,” Hisagi says, clearly displeased.

“It’s good for you, boy. Eat it,” Renji tells him.

As Mila Rose is sitting down to eat, Bazz-B teasingly calls her to come and sit in his lap.

“Your lap?” Mila Rose laughs. “What, your hand not getting the job done anymore?”

Laughter fills the mess hall as Mila Rose squeezes between Muguruma and Soifon and starts eating her breakfast.

Hisagi sets down his mug of coffee before he speaks. “Hey,” he says, giving a knowing look at Bazz-B. “I sure wouldn’t mind getting some more of that Arrancar ass. Remember that time?”

Everyone laughs as Bazz-B and Hisagi fist-bump and high-five each other.

“Yeah, but the one you had was a male,” Madarame says, and there’s more laughter.

“It don’t matter when it’s an Arrancar, man!” Hisagi laughs.

Then Bazz-B is holding his combat knife out to Akon, telling him to do ‘the thing with the knife’.

“Oh please, I can’t,” Akon says, but he gives in to everyone’s clamouring.

“Come on, man, let’s do it!” Bazz-B encourages.

Renji smiles. He’s seen this so many times on base, but it’s always fun to watch.

Right then, Muguruma gets up and moves behind Bazz-B, holding him in place.

“Hey, what’re you doin’, man?” Bazz-B asks, alarmed.

“Come on.” Muguruma moves Akon’s hand out of the way and puts Bazz-B’s hand on the table, his fingers spread.

Renji watches, mildly amused, as Akon puts his hand over Bazz-B’s, even as Bazz-B is clearly getting more nervous.

“Hey, quit messin’ around, come on!” Bazz-B protests.

“Trust me,” Akon reassures.

Then, he’s stabbing the knife into every space between Bazz-B’s fingers, going fast real quickly as Bazz-B slowly screams in panic. Akon’s hand is a blur, Zaraki is cackling, everyone is laughing, and Renji chuckles slightly.

By the time Akon is finished, Bazz-B still looks very shaken as he takes his knife back.

“Alright, knock it off, knock it off!” Zaraki says, still laughing.

Muguruma claps Bazz-B’s shoulder as he places his tray back in front of him. “There. Enjoy your meal.”

“That wasn’t funny, man!”

Renji chuckles as he glances over at the Lieutenant’s table. Again, he feels a shudder when he looks at Kurotsuchi. The guy looks so sour and annoyed with everything.

“Wonder what’s up with Kurotsuchi over there?” Renji asks.

Hisagi snorts. “Boy’s got a corncob up his ass, for sure,” he says.

“But that Ise gal? She’s just fine as hell,” Iba says, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, good luck with that, Iba. Her paygrade’s gotta be light years ahead of yours,” Renji tells him.

“Weyland-Yutani, man,” Madarame says, shaking his head. “Everyone there probably has a stick up their asses.”

It’s the usual as always. Goofing off, doing the knife trick, bitching about the Company.

Even when they’re shipping out, things never change.

* * *

The thing about the Marines that all new recruits learn is that there’s a lot of waiting. Most Marines find ways to occupy those times, either through sleeping, cards, smoking, or other things. It’s also a well-known fact that a career soldier, or a ‘lifer’, can willingly drop off to sleep anywhere for any length of time. It’s a wise survival technique.

Waiting for Sasakibe in the dropship bay, however, is not a time for either of those three things. So Renji sharpens his combat knife while waiting. His knife is a lot sharper before Zaraki finally calls them to attention. Everyone gathers and Renji goes to join Zaraki, Ise, Kurotsuchi, and Sasakibe up at the front. Right before Sasakibe can start speaking, however, Bazz-B raises his hand.

“What is it, Black?” Sasakibe asks.

“Is this gonna be a stand-up fight, sir? Or another bug hunt?” Bazz-B asks.

Renji sighs inwardly when Sasakibe says the line every Marine hates: “All we know”.

“All we know is that there’s still no contact with the facility, and that a xenomorph may be involved,” Sasakibe says.

 _Xenomorph? So that’s what they’re calling them now?_ Renji wonders.

“A what, sir?” Hisagi asks.

“It’s… probably a bug hunt, but we don’t know for sure,” Renji admits.

“‘Xenomorph’ is simply the term we use to describe non-human lifeforms as of now,” Ise adds.

Kurotsuchi scoffs. “Maybe you Marines should’ve taken some science classes in boot camp.”

Renji glares at Kurotsuchi, and he’s not the only one. All the other Marines look at him in annoyance.

“Right, I’ll leave it to you, Corporal,” Sasakibe says, nodding at Renji.

Renji takes a deep breath. “I’ll tell you what I know,” he starts. “We set down on Iwashiro Space Station. We found someone with something attached to his face. What we didn’t know at the time was that the parasite implanted him with an embryo, the second lifecycle.” He closes his eyes briefly. “It first attaches itself to its victim, detaches, and then dies. It’s basically like… like a walking sex organ-”

Bazz-B snorts. “Sounds kinda like you, Abarai.”

 _Oh, you of all people should talk about walking sex organs, jeez…_ Renji thinks to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.

 _“Pendejo,”_ Mila Rose mutters under her breath.

Renji chooses to ignore that. “The embryo, the… second part, hosts in the victim’s body for several hours and gestates. Then it-” He swallows, trying to suppress the flashback. “-it emerges, violently, killing its host in the process. It moults and grows rapidly-” He sees Mila Rose raise her hand. “Yes?”

“Look, I only need to know one thing,” Mila Rose says.

 _I know where this is going…_ “Yeah?”

Mila Rose grins. “Where they are.” She cracks her knuckles as everyone laughs.

“Yeah, Mila Rose is ready to kick ass!” Muguruma says, clapping hands with her.

“Anytime, anywhere!”

Same jokes, same bullshit, everyday.

Even Renji can’t really hide his smile, but it quickly fades away. “I hope you’re right, Mila Rose,” he says. “I really do. Because my entire unit was wiped out in less than twenty-four hours on that station! And if one of those things made it onto that facility, then who knows what kind of damage has been done. Do you understand?”

Renji rarely lost his cool in moments like this, but the trauma’s really starting to get to him right now.

Sasakibe clears his throat. “Right. Well, we have his report on file, and I suggest you all listen to it before we land,” he says. “Any questions?”

Bazz-B raises his hand.

“Yes?”

With a challenging grin, Bazz-B asks, “how do I get outta this chickenshit outfit?”

“You secure that shit, Black,” Zaraki says, glaring at him.

_Yeah, Sarge is gonna ream him out._

“Alright,” Sasakibe says. “Now listen up. I want this thing to go smooth and by the numbers. I want DCS and tactical database assimilation by oh-eight-thirty. Ordnance loading, weapon strip, and dropship prep details will have seven hours. Now move it, people!”

Zaraki steps forward. “Alright, sweethearts, you heard the man and you know the drill! Assholes and elbows!” he snaps, and then angrily points at Bazz-B. “Black, come here! _Come here!”_

Just another glorious day in the Corps, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't know much about the Alien franchise, Weyland-Yutani is basically the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire franchise. They're a powerful megacorporation (British-Japanese) that deals in technological advances and facilitating the human colonization of space, and they've also been trying to harness the titular aliens as bio-weapons (even though they can't be controlled at all). They produce androids, military weapons, colonies, everything.
> 
> They're also very corrupt, as they are more than willing to mark humans as expendable if they can get their hands on an alien, and their actions have caused a lot of deaths in the franchise (civilian crew, entire colony, and almost an entire squad of Marines). So, they're also going to be the Greater-Scope Villain for this series too.
> 
> Some of these lines are from the original film as well, and I based the Bleach characters off certain Marines. For example, Renji is both Ripley and Hicks, Bazz-B is Hudson, Mila Rose is Vasquez, and Kenpachi is Sergeant Apone.
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	2. An Express Elevator to Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Renji has a bad feeling about this mission, and it only gets worse when they arrive at the research facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two, with more _Aliens_ references and some more shady Weyland-Yutani stuff. I tried to give this chapter a bit more of the horror kind of atmosphere, and I hope I did okay in it. We also get a little bit of Nanao's perspective in this chapter.
> 
> Here's the link for the motion tracker sound effect, in case you want to hear it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VancAKcmO6s).
> 
> hope you enjoy!

Prepping for the mission helps take Renji’s mind off the flashbacks and anxiety that he’s feeling. That and sharpening his combat knife. He makes a mental note to himself to fix an appointment with Dr. Unohana when they get back to Earth. He’s been seeing her for four years, since Iwashiro, and she’s really helped him out with his trauma.

At some point, Ise comes up to him and Zaraki and asks if she can help out in any way. It surprises them, but at least she’s not just sitting on her ass like Kurotsuchi.

So Renji has her help out Akon in preparing the Armoured Personnel Carrier, or the APC, as everyone calls it.

“So, why’d WeYu send you along?” Renji asks casually.

“Oh, I actually insisted on coming along for this mission,” Ise tells him. “Kurotsuchi, well… he has a reputation of being incredibly callous to the point of having complete disregard for other people. If anyone can keep him in line, I believe I can.”

Renji raises an eyebrow at her. “And he’s not been fired… why?”

Ise sighs. “I don’t know,” she says. “He has made some important contributions in the science department, but that still doesn’t justify his actions in doing so.”

Well, he has yet another reason to be very suspicious of Weyland-Yutani now.

Soon, pretty much all their artillery is loaded and the APC is ready, and it’s time to get ready for combat.

The M3 Pattern Personal Armour is the standard ballistic protective armour used throughout the Marine Corps. Designed to balance lightness and comfort with optimum protection, the armour consists of several pieces: a vest, abdominal armour, leg armour, and webbing. All of it is designed to fit comfortably over cargo fatigue pants and muscle shirts.

Pretty much every Marine has customized their vest and weapons in some way, and Renji is no exception. As he pulls out his vest from his poster-decorated locker, Renji looks over the various designs he’d painted on. The front has some jagged black designs that resemble his tattoos, and around the center above his heart is a white snake’s skull with its fangs framing a dark-pink camellia flower. On the back plate, he’d stenciled the word ‘Lifer’, along with a few more of those black jagged designs.

He can’t really remember why he’d painted the camellia, but it doesn’t matter.

As Renji straps on his abdominal armour after putting on his vest over his black tank top and attaching his shoulder lamp, he sees Muguruma and Mila Rose prepping their smartguns from the corner of his eye. Those guns are heavy, so those two are the right people to carry them. Mila Rose had painted ‘ADIOS’ on the side of her smartgun, and painted on the chestplate of her combat harness is the phrase ‘El riesgo siempre vive’, a shout-out to her half-Afro-Mexican heritage. Meanwhile, Muguruma’s smartgun has ‘My bitch’ painted on the side, and his combat harness has a 69 right in the center. With their Head-Mounted Sight devices, they’re both ready too.

“You ready for this, man?” Bazz-B is already suited up when he approaches Renji. And he looks more than excited.

His armour has flames painted on the front, along with ‘The Heat’ painted underneath, and a skull and crossbones on the back with the phrase ‘Das Eisen schmieden’ beneath, a shout-out to his half-German heritage. He’s already attached his shoulder lamp, and his helmet is placed over his Mohawk, somehow.

“I guess I am,” Renji says, putting on his microphone headset. As he gets his M314 Motion Tracker and ME3 Hand Welder ready, Bazz-B continues speaking.

“Don’t worry, Abarai! We’re the squad of ultimate badasses!” Bazz-B encourages. “Those things’ll be beggin’ for mercy by the time we’re done with ‘em!”

 _Let’s hope so,_ Renji thinks. Reaching into his locker, he takes out a personal detail: a pump-action shotgun holstered in a scabbard, and straps it to his back just as Zaraki passes by.

“Your own shotgun?” Zaraki asks.

Renji just gives him a small smile. “I like to keep it handy for close encounters,” he says before starting to strap on his leg armour.

As he fastens the armour for his left leg, he hears Zaraki start speaking.

“Alright, sweethearts,” he says, “we’re a team, and there’s nothin’ ta worry about. We come here, and we’re gonna conquer, and we’re gonna kick some. Is that understood? That’s what we’re gonna do, sweethearts. We are going to go kick some,” Zaraki says, getting everyone pumped.

Now that his leg armour is fastened securely, Renji slams his locker door shut before taking his M10 Ballistic helmet and putting it on his head. Then, Zaraki raises his voice.

“Alright, people! On the ready line! Are ya lean?” Zaraki barks.

“Yeah!” Renji shouts back with everyone else.

“Are ya mean?”

“Yeah!”

“What are you?”

“Lean and mean!”

“What are you?”

**_“Lean and mean!”_ **

With that, Renji’s running to the ready line, grabbing a pulse rifle and several rounds of its caseless cartridge ammo from the armory on his way, loading up the rifle as well, while Zaraki continues barking at everyone to get there.

“To the ready line, Marines! Get on the ready line!” Zaraki orders. “Move it out, goddammit! Move it out, move it out, move it out!”

Very quickly, everyone is standing on the ready line before the APC, which is parked before the dropship. Renji glances up at the cockpit and sees that Kira and Yadomaru are already seated and just preparing things for the launch.

Zaraki marches by, a grin on his face.

“Nice! Absolutely _badasses!_ Let’s pack ‘em in! Get in there!” Zaraki shouts.

He slides the APC door open and steps inside. “Alright, move it!”

Renji moves in first, heading to his combat seat, followed by everyone else, one by one.

“Alright, I want combat seating, you know your places,” Zaraki orders as he moves to his seat. “Get those weapons stowed. Come on, settle down, people!”

After Renji stows his weapons and sits down, he sees Ise and Kurotsuchi entering the APC. While Ise looks a little intimidated, Kurotsuchi just looks disdainful of everything. The both of them quickly take their seats.

As Mila Rose stows her smartgun and moves to her seat, Sasakibe sits before the Tactical Operations Center panels, checking over the systems.

“Lock ‘em in, Black!” Zaraki orders.

Bazz-B pulls down the yoke harness restraints over everyone. “You ready to get it on?” he asks Madarame.

“You know it!” Madarame replies with a grin.

Ise and Kurotsuchi pull down their restraints over themselves, it’s time to go.

“Okay, Akon,” Sasakibe says into his microphone. “Let’s go.”

There’s a slight rumble as Akon drives the APC up onto the dropship’s ramp.

“I’m ready, man!” Bazz-B says, going back and forth to check on the restraints. “Ready to _get it on!”_

“Yeah, of course you are,” Soifon says.

“Let’s go!” Bazz-B sits down and pulls his restraints down.

The ramp starts raising up, letting the APC get into the hold, as Renji pulls down his restraints, and he hears Yadomaru speak through the intercom.

 _“Standby, cross-locking now,”_ Yadomaru says. _“Prelaunch auto cycle engaged. Primary couplers released. And the internals.”_

Renji closes his eyes as he feels the dropship lowering into the airlock of the _Gonryomaru._ There’s a slight jolt, but it’s routine as always. Renji’s been through this enough number of times.

 _“Confirm crosslock and drop station secured,”_ Yadomaru says.

“Affirmative. All drop stations secured,” Sasakibe says.

The inner hatch doors close.

 _“Standby, ten seconds.”_ As always, Yadomaru’s voice is cool and calm.

The outer airlock doors are opening now as the ship is in orbit over LV-352.

_“Standby to initiate release sequencer. On my mark.”_

Bazz-B grins. “We’re on the express elevator ta hell! Goin’ down!” he declares as Yadomaru counts down.

_“Three. Two. One. Mark.”_

Then, with a jolt, the ship drops towards LV-352, and Bazz-B whoops as they starts flying towards the planetoid’s atmosphere.

As the dropship approaches LV-352, Renji slowly closes his eyes. Though he doesn’t show it, he’s nervous. He decides to get some sleep during the drop, so he can calm down and conserve his energy for later use. And besides, it’s not the first time he’s slept during a drop.

As Renji closes his eyes, he lets the motions of the ship and Yadomaru’s occasional announcements calm him down.

 _“Switch to DCS ranging,”_ Yadomaru says.

 _“Two-four-oh. Nominal to profile,”_ Kira responds.

 _“We’re in the pipe, five-by-five.”_ There’s a smile to Yadomaru’s cool and confident voice.

And that’s the last thing Renji hears before he succumbs to sleep.

* * *

Ise looks around the APC, observing all the Marines. She feels a little bit out of place among these guys, but she has to admit that their camaraderie is pretty impressive. It’s unlike anything she’s ever seen among her colleagues at Weyland-Yutani, even if these Marines are a lot cruder.

 _“Rough air ahead,”_ Corporal Yadomaru announces through the intercom. _“We’re in for some chop.”_

Sure enough, the ship begins to move roughly, shaking slightly. Yet none of the Marines are disturbed. They’re all calm and silent, waiting confidently. Lieutenant Sasakibe himself also looks pretty collected.

That’s when she notices that Corporal Abarai has fallen asleep, and Ise can’t help but look incredulous. How the hell can he sleep through this chop?

“That’s Corporal Abarai for ya, _chica,”_ Private First Class Mila Rose says, as if reading Ise’s mind. “He’s a Lifer. He can sleep through anything.”

“I see,” Ise says.

Kurotsuchi just looks unimpressed, but Ise ignores him.

“You nervous?” That’s Private First Class Black, affectionately known as Bazz-B.

When Ise looks at him, he just grins.

“Don’t worry, Ise! Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you!” he declares.

Private First Class Muguruma snorts. “Yeah, let’s just hope you don’t get holed up somewhere for three days and have to get your ass saved by the U.S. Colonial Marines again,” he says. “Remember Hungary?”

“Man, fuck you! That was one time!”

“He’s got a point, though. We don’t need a repeat of Hungary again,” Corporal Soifon points out. “Oh, and by the way, the Hungarian military also had to get you outta there too.”

“Whoa, Soifon agreeing with Muguruma?” Private Iba says, raising an eyebrow. “Never thought I’d live to see this day!”

“Knock it off, you guys!” Sergeant Zaraki barks.

Kurotsuchi shakes his head, looking very annoyed. “Typical Marines,” he mutters. “Always so barbaric and uncouth.”

Ise sighs. _Why did he even decide to accompany the Marines if he hates them so much?_

Right then, Corporal Yadomaru’s voice comes over the intercom again. _“Turning on final. Coming around to a seven-zero-niner.”_

 _“Terminal guidance locked in,”_ Private First Class Kira says.

Lieutenant Sasakibe is observing the monitor screens of the Tactical Operations Panel. Ise notices that each screen is labeled with each individual Marine’s name. The upper screens show images from the integrated video cameras on the Marines’ helmets, and the lower screens are clearly bio-monitors. Other screens show views of the exterior.

“Let’s see… everyone’s online, good,” Lieutenant Sasakibe says.

Playing with the controls, he then speaks to Corporal Yadomaru. “Hold at forty. Slow circle of the complex.”

Ise leans closer to the screen, observing the display. “Looks like they still have power,” she notes. “Everything seems intact.”

 _“Bad news, Lieutenant,”_ Corporal Yadomaru says through the intercom. _“The Hokutan facility landing bay is screwed. We can’t land there.”_

Lieutenant Sasakibe looks closer at the landing bay tower, and Ise leans a little closer too. Indeed, it doesn’t look too safe to land. Debris is scattered almost everywhere upon the surface.

“Change of plans. Head to the atmosphere processor landing bay,” Lieutenant Sasakibe orders.

 _“Affirmative,”_ Corporal Yadomaru says.

 _“Copy that,”_ Private First Class Kira adds.

It takes a few more minutes for the dropship to reach the atmosphere processor. Fortunately, the landing bay there is clear and good to use.

“Alright. Fire-team A, gear up. Let’s move. You got two minutes,” Sergeant Zaraki orders, then glances at Corporal Abarai. “Somebody wake up Abarai.”

* * *

Renji wakes up after feeling someone shaking his shoulder, and he opens his eyes to see Mila Rose standing before him, already geared up.

“Time to get goin’, Sleepin’ Beauty,” she tells him.

Immediately, Renji gets up and within a few moments, he’s geared up.

Before he even realizes, they’ve landed and Renji can hear the rumble of the APC as it drives up to the complex.

“Alright, I want a nice, clean dispersal this time,” Zaraki announces. “Ten seconds, people! Look sharp!”

Right then, the APC comes to a stop and the doors open.

“Let’s go, people! Move it out!”

Everyone immediately runs out of the APC, getting hit with cold wind and a light rainfall, and they spread out before dropping behind immediate cover. Renji leads his team to the left and holds their position to provide Zaraki’s team cover.

The entire facility is silent, except for the sound of boots hitting wet ground and rain falling. Renji’s feeling even more nervous than before. Whatever anxiety he’d felt on the _Gonryomaru_ has increased, especially after seeing the debris left strewn about.

Right then, Sasakibe comes through on his mic.

 _“First squad up online. Abarai, get yours in a cordon. Watch the rear,”_ Sasakibe orders.

Renji then hears Zaraki speak.

“Mila Rose, take point. Let’s move!” he barks.

From his vantage point, Renji sees Madarame flanking on the right and Iba flanking on the left, their pulse rifles at the ready, while Mila Rose and Bazz-B stand at the doors, weapons at the ready. Zaraki tries the gate controls, then waves Bazz-B over. Bazz-B, all business now, comes up and briefly studies the door panel before running a bypass.

He may be a joker, but he knows when to get serious.

 _“Second squad, move up. Flanking positions,”_ Sasakibe orders.

Renji signals his squad and they all run together to the entrance, taking cover and standing watch.

It doesn’t take long for Bazz-B to run the bypass. The doors slide open with a rumbling whir, and Zaraki motions Mila Rose inside the complex. Then he, Madarame, and Bazz-B follow.

As this happens, Renji and his squad keep watch, looking for anything that may indicate hostiles. Renji glances down at his motion tracker display, which pulses steadily and emits a steady tapping as it scans the area.

 _“Second squad, move inside. Abarai, take the upper level,”_ Sasakibe tells him. _“Use your motion tracker.”_

Taking the lead, Renji leads his team through the gates and inside the facility building, before silently leading them up the stairwell to the second level. Glancing down at his motion tracker as he does so, Renji shakes his head.

“Nothing. Not a goddamn thing,” he says softly.

That uneasiness he’d been feeling earlier isn’t going away. If anything, it’s only been growing stronger.

It’s way too quiet in this damn place, and Renji feels a shiver run through his spine as they reach the entrance to the dark and cold second level. It’s the same feeling he’d felt back on Iwashiro, before…

Renji freezes in place, and his vision fades. Suddenly, he’s back on Iwashiro. He sees himself running through those cold, dark hallways, smells the stench of death and destruction all around him, hears Private Kotsubaki Sentaro frantically shouting at Private Kotetsu Kiyone to _get the fuck outta the room, it’s gonna kill her,_ hears Kotsubaki’s visceral screams, hears Kotetsu's anguished cries…

“God… no…” Renji whispers helplessly.

“Abarai? Oi, Abarai?” Muguruma’s voice is distant.

 _“What’s happening, Corporal?”_ Sasakibe’s voice comes through his headset.

The flashback eventually fades away, and Renji’s eyes become focused again. He notices Hisagi, Soifon, and Muguruma staring at him in concern.

“You okay?” Hisagi asks.

The panic slowly melts away and Renji remembers where he is now. Once the rest of his brain catches up, he looks down and sighs. “I’m okay,” he says, both to his team and to the Lieutenant. “I’m okay. Let’s keep moving.”

“You sure? Sounded pretty bad,” Hisagi asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll be fine,” Renji tells him. “Just… I was just remembering Iwashiro again, that’s all.”

Pretty much everyone knows a little bit about Iwashiro, but Renji has never really gone into the details about what had happened on that station.

Renji gives them a shaky smile. “It’ll be alright,” he reassures. “We got a search to do now.”

Taking a deep breath, Renji leads his team onto the level and prays that he'll be able to move forward from Iwashiro this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the information about the Marines' weaponry and equipment mentioned throughout this chapter comes from the AVP Wiki.
> 
> As for translations:  
> \- 'El riesgo siempre vive'= 'The risk lives forever'  
> \- 'Das Eisen schmieden'= 'Strike while the iron is hot'
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	3. Last Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While investigating the facility, Renji discovers two things. First, the Facehugger specimens. And second, a lone survivor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3, where there's more exploration, more suspense, and of course, a new discovery.
> 
> I also noticed I made a small error in the first chapter: Hisagi should be a Private First Class, not a regular Private. I've gone back and changed it now.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Going through the area, it becomes more clear to Renji that something happened here. Something very, very wrong.

The power is out completely, so Renji turns on his shoulder lamp to observe his surroundings better.

They do a sweep of the whole level, leaving no room or door unchecked. Each room has signs of a struggle in them: overturned furniture, windows blown out in several offices, scattered papers that float in puddles… and in some rooms, they see rotting food on plates, coffee machines run dry, and cups still full of both coffee and rainwater. There’s no sign of the scientists anywhere.

“Damn… what happened here?” Muguruma wonders aloud.

“Whatever it was, it happened real fast,” Renji says, shaking his head.

Renji’s no stranger to these kinds of things. He’s searched through ruined buildings, and he knows the signs of conflict. It’s just like…

No. He can’t think about it here. Not now.

Continuing on, Renji leads his team through more corridors, and up yet another level. There’s more rooms, more mess, more destruction, more eerie silence, and still no sign of any scientists or researchers.

Right then, a female voice comes through in his headset. It’s Ise. “Corporal Abarai? Back up. Pan right. There.”

Renji does so, and his heart skips a beat as he kneels down.

There are several holes in the grating, corroded through in an irregular pattern. Renji swallows. “This… This is exactly what we saw four years ago…” he recalls.

“Looks melted,” Muguruma says.

“Sounds like somebody bagged one of your bad guys here, Abarai,” Soifon observes. “You said those things had concentrated acid for blood, right?”

“They sure do,” Renji says, trying not to get overwhelmed by the memory of Private First Class Toudou Izaemon’s death.

 _“But where’s the body?”_ Ise asks. _“If someone killed one, then--”_

“I dunno.” Renji looks into Muguruma’s camera to talk to Ise directly.

Muguruma shrugs. “Maybe there’s some big-ass rats ‘round here,” he suggests.

“There’s no evidence of any other organisms that we can see. We’re moving on,” Renji says, standing upright.

 _“Keep your eyes out,”_ Sasakibe orders.

“Yes sir.”

Renji signals for his team to continue. Only five minutes later, he hears Soifon call out to him.

“Dead end here, Abarai,” she says.

Right then, Zaraki’s voice comes through the headset. _“Second squad. What’s your status?”_ he asks.

Perfect timing. “We just finished our sweep here. Nobody’s home,” Renji informs him.

 _“Roger that. Sir, this place is dead. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it,”_ Zaraki tells Sasakibe.

There’s a brief pause before Sasakibe speaks.

 _“First team, head for operations. Black, see if you can get their CPU online,”_ Sasakibe orders. _“Abarai, meet me at the south lock by the landing bay tower. We’re coming in.”_

“Roger.” He turns to the others. “Come on, let’s go.”

By the time they make it to the gate by the landing bay tower, the APC is pulling up. Renji has the rest of his squad stay inside while he and Hisagi go to show the Lieutenant in.

Sasakibe walks quickly to the gate, followed by Kurotsuchi. Renji and Hisagi turn to follow them when Renji notices that he hasn’t seen Ise go inside.

Turning around, Renji sees that Ise’s still standing there, looking somewhat nervous and unsure.

He walks back to her. “You alright?” he asks.

Ise glances up at him and nods. “Yes. Thank you,” she says, taking a deep breath. “Sorry, Corporal. I’m just… I’m worried. But what about you?”

“I’ll be okay,” Renji reassures her. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

It’s still cold and rainy. As if realizing this, Ise nods and walks on ahead while Renji takes up the rear.

“Abarai,” Muguruma comes up to them when they come inside. “They sealed off this wing at both ends. Welded the doors and blocked off the stairs with heavy equipment. But it looks like the barricade didn’t hold.”

Renji and Ise approach the barricade where Sasakibe, Kurotsuchi, Muguruma, and Soifon are waiting.

“Right ahead here,” Muguruma points out.

Renji is stunned at the sight before him. It’s even worse than what they’ve seen so far.

There’s a barricade blocking the corridor, if it can even be called that. It’s a hastily-welded wall of pipes, steel plate, outer-door panels. Acid holes are burned in the floor and through the walls in several places. But that’s not all. The metal has been scratched and twisted by hideously powerful forces, peeled back like foil.

“Any bodies?” Sasakibe asks.

“No, sir,” Muguruma says.

“A last stand,” Soifon observes.

“Must’ve been one helluva fight,” Hisagi says.

Renji remembers seeing torn debris like this on Iwashiro. He remembers seeing destroyed makeshift barricades, clearly nothing more than a nuisance for those creatures. Whatever uneasiness he’s feeling right now is slowly turning into dread, pooling thickly in his stomach.

That’s when he notices the medlab not too far away.

“Over there,” he says.

Sasakibe nods. “Alright. Muguruma, this way. We should be able to cut through the medlab to Operations,” he says.

Muguruma takes point with Soifon and Sasakibe. Ise and Kurotsuchi move along quietly in the middle, while Renji and Hisagi cover the rear.

Upon reaching the medlab, the team spreads out even more. As they pass by a second lab, Renji finds himself almost bumping into Ise when she stops suddenly. “Oh… Oh my gosh…” Ise says.

Sasakibe follows her line of vision. “What the hell is that?”

Renji follows his line of vision and almost immediately, that same wave of dread washes over him. There are four stasis tubes inside the lab, each one preserving individual specimens inside some solution. Was it really…? “Let me go first,” he tells them, opening the door and entering the lab.

Upon seeing the tubes, his stomach drops. _It can’t be…_

“Goddammit…” Renji whispers, staring at the specimens inside the tubes.  _How the hell...?_

They are the same sort of parasites that have plagued Renji’s dreams for four years now. The parasites almost resemble a pair of skeletal hands fused together, with eight long, finger-like legs and a long, spine-like tail. At the same time, however, they look almost like spiders with sickeningly translucent skin, and a single tubule hanging from the center of the underside and drifting beneath it.

It’s a creature that one definitely does not want on their face.

“Holy shit…” Hisagi says. “These look like the graphics on your report, Abarai.”

“Looks like the scientists have been doing a little collecting here,” Sasakibe says.

Renji swallows and nods. Two of them are already dead, their skin gray and the solution they’re held in cloudy. The other two are pink and alive.

Closing his eyes, Renji turns away. Just looking at the Facehuggers makes him feel so unclean.

Ise looks at Renji. “Are these the same…?”

“Yeah.”

Renji keeps a good distance away from the tubes. Kurotsuchi, on the other hand, walks up to one of the tubes and peers closely, obviously fascinated.

“Watch out, Kurotsuchi…” Renji warns.

Kurotsuchi doesn’t listen, and peers even closer. And then jumps back when the parasite suddenly lunges, slamming itself against the glass. From the visceral underside of the creature’s body, the tubule slithers tonguelike over the inside of the glass.

Renji can’t help but snort at Kurotsuchi’s almost-comically indignant look. “Looks like love at first sight to me,” he says sardonically, and ignores Kurotsuchi’s glare.

“These two are dead,” Soifon notes. “Only those ones are alive.”

“So this is what a live walking sex organ looks like, huh?” Muguruma says, raising an eyebrow.

Soifon shoots a repulsed glare at him. “Don’t ever say anything like that again.”

Sasakibe looks at the parasites with mild disgust on his face. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he says.

“Looks like some kind of scorpion,” Hisagi adds.

Renji notices Ise looking through a file folder from one of the tubes, and watches her adjust her glasses before reading the document out loud.

“‘Surgically removed before embryo implantation’,” Ise reads. “‘Subject: Katakura, Asuka. Died during procedure’.” She looks up from the autopsy report. “They killed him taking it off.”

“Damn,” Muguruma murmurs.

Suddenly, they’re all startled by a loud ultrasound beep from the motion tracker.

“I think we got something here,” Hisagi says, turning to Renji.

Renji raises his tracker to look at the display, his heart pounding against his chest. “Behind us,” he says, nodding at the corridor they just passed through.

“One of us?” Ise asks hopefully.

Sasakibe clears his throat. “Zaraki, where are your people? Anybody in D-Block?” he asks into his headset.

 _“Ah, that’s a negative. We’re all in Operations,”_ Zaraki says.

Renji immediately signals to Muguruma, who comes through to take point in front of Hisagi and Soifon.

“It’s moving,” Renji says, still focused on the tracker’s display.

Muguruma keeps his eyes on his smartgun display. “Which way?” he asks, swinging his smartgun to ready position on its support arm.

“It’s coming straight for us,” Hisagi says. “Straight up.”

The Marines move carefully through the corridor, their guns at the ready. Renji goes first, then Muguruma, then Hisagi, and then Soifon. Following them are Sasakibe, Ise, and Kurotsuchi.

Once more, Renji’s heart is beating even faster, expecting claws and teeth to jump out at him from the walls or the ceiling any minute now.

The tracker is reading out more rapidly now, and Sasakibe holds out a flashlight, sweeping the corridor.

Suddenly, something darts across the corridor, and Muguruma takes aim. Renji quickly acts, throwing his rifle into Muguruma’s and slamming it upwards, and a deafening shot rips into the ceiling and wall.

“The fuck?!” Muguruma demands, glaring at Renji.

“Hold up,” Renji orders. He holds his rifle up and moves past him, aiming his light to shine underneath several pipes.

A small smile crosses his face briefly before he turns to look at Ise.

“Ise, come over here,” Renji tells her. “You’re the least scariest-looking among us.”

Renji approaches the pipes tentatively, crouching down on the grating and Ise comes up to him, also kneeling beside him. Sasakibe, Hisagi, Soifon, and Muguruma follow, lowering themselves to get a better view.

Once more, Renji can’t help but smile gently, and everyone sees why he threw his rifle into Muguruma’s.

Cowering under the pipes is a very dirty, very terrified young woman staring back at him and Ise.

She appears to be in her late-teens or early-twenties. Her burnt-orange hair is a filthy, tangled mess, and Renji can see a six-petaled flower-shaped hairpin glinting on both sides of her head. Her clothes, obviously nurse scrubs, are filthy and tattered, and in her hands is a tattered plush bear.

While Ise looks surprised for a moment, she doesn’t hesitate in speaking soothingly to her.

“Hey,” she whispers. “Shh. It’s alright. Come on out. We’re here to help you.”

Renji tries to maneuver under the ledge, but he’s too tall to fit.

“Just grab her already,” Kurotsuchi snaps. It’s completely unnecessary, too.

The woman inches back from Renji’s hand with a shudder.

“Don’t be afraid. Come on, we won’t hurt you. We’re here to help you,” Ise continues, her voice kind and almost-motherly. “It’s alright, sweetheart. Come on out. Easy. Easy.”

“I got her!” Renji says, starting to pull the woman back towards them.

However, he quickly recoils his hand when the woman bites down. “Ow! Damn!” he curses.

The woman suddenly bolts away from them.

“Watch her! She’s gone under the grille!” Renji orders.

“Don’t let her go!” Ise cries in panic.

“Shine your light over here. Here,” Hisagi calls.

How a young woman can move so fast in such a confined space is beyond him.

Ise tries to calm everyone down. “Keep back. Keep back. Don’t scare her,” she tells them.

The woman changes direction and heads for an air shaft, crawling inside. Fortunately, it’s a pretty spacious shaft.

“I’ll go get her,” Renji says, crawling into the vent after her.

“You sure about that, Abarai?” Soifon asks. “Thought Ise was the least scary-looking.”

“It’s alright,” Ise reassures.

Just ahead, the woman pulls herself out of the tunnel and pushes a grille across Renji’s path.

“Wait!” Renji braces his hands and forearms against the grille. The woman’s nowhere near strong enough to stop him, and Renji pushes the grille open and climbs out.

The woman crawls over her collection of food stuffs, clutter, bedding, and mementos to hide in the corner. Renji looks around, amazed. This must’ve been where the woman was hiding since contact was lost with the facility.

Renji gently shuffles over to the woman on his knees. “It’s okay. It’s alright,” he whispers soothingly. “Don’t be afraid.”

The only warning Renji gets is the woman’s eyes widening, and then she tries to run away again.

Quickly, he throws himself to the side and grabs the woman in his arms. “Wait, no you don’t!”

Instantly, her self-defense instincts kick in, and the woman is crying out and flailing around as she tries to escape Renji’s arms. She tries to bite Renji again, but Renji’s grip never falters and he gives her nothing to hit or bite.

Renji holds the woman firmly and gently against him. “Easy, easy! It’s gonna be okay!” he says over her grunts of protest. “You’re gonna be alright now. It’s okay. Shh, shh.”

The woman stops flailing and goes limp, almost catatonic. Renji continues to soothe her with comforting words, and he takes a look around the place when he notices an ID card close by. Picking it up, Renji realizes that it’s a student nurse ID, and looks at the photo. The woman in his arms may be filthy, but without a doubt, the photo is of her.

Glancing at the kanji besides the photo, Renji registers the woman’s name: Inoue Orihime. Beneath that is the word ‘Intern’.

“Abarai?” Ise calls through the vent.

“I’m here. I got her, she’s okay,” Renji calls back, still holding the woman, Inoue, close to him. “We’re coming back now.”

He makes his way to the vent with Inoue. “I’m putting her in first,” he says. “The vent only leads to you, so you’ll have to grab her when she comes.”

“Got it,” Ise confirms. “Send her here.”

Renji gently pats Inoue’s shoulder and coaxes her into the vent. “Go on,” he encourages. “And no biting, alright?”

Inoue looks down, but does as she’s told. After taking the ID card with him, Renji follows closely on her heels. Ahead, Hisagi and Ise pull Inoue out and gently set her down, but Ise keeps a gentle grip on her shoulder.

Then, Renji pulls himself out from the vent. “Thanks,” he says, taking Inoue’s shoulder from Ise. He’s about to speak when he notices Inoue’s eyes and pauses.

Inoue is just staring off into space. Her stare is traumatized, vacant. Her lips are white and trembling as her eyes track wildly around her, and she flinches from unseen terrors.

Renji feels his heart ache as he looks at her. While Inoue may be a young woman, she’s as frail as a child right now, and Renji can’t blame her.

 _Poor thing…_ He thinks. “Soifon, I want you to do a check up on her, alright?”

“Of course,” Soifon says.

“Let’s get to Operations,” Sasakibe says, gesturing to where they came from. “Maybe we’ll finally get some answers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so they've found Orihime.
> 
> I want Renji and Orihime to develop a sort-of friendship like Ripley and Newt, except instead of a parent-child bond, it's gonna be kind of a brother-sister bond. Though I do think that Renji would definitely be both fatherly and brotherly to Orihime.
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	4. Enter the Nest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orihime opens up a little bit, and the Marines find the scientists.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 4, where we get a tentative brother-sister bond starting to develop between Renji and Orihime, and where things start to get a bit violent now.
> 
> To get a feel for this chapter, I recommend you listen to 'Sublevel 3' from the _Aliens_ soundtrack by James Horner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8mVsG7LuCw).
> 
> Advanced warning for blood and mentions of body horror.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

When they get to Operations, Sasakibe and Soifon take Inoue to the Chief Scientist’s office to check up on her and talk to her, while Renji goes to get something for Inoue to drink. When Renji enters the office with a coffee mug, he sees Inoue sitting in a chair, her arms wrapped around her knees as she curls in on herself.

“What’s her name again?” Sasakibe asks.

“Inoue Orihime,” Soifon says. “Seems like she was doing her off-planet nursing internship at the medical facility here.”

Soifon is watching the readouts from a bio-monitoring cuff around Inoue’s arm, while Sasakibe is sitting in front of Inoue.

“Think, Inoue-san,” Sasakibe tries coaxing. “Concentrate. Just start at the beginning…”

There’s no response. Inoue is completely silent.

“What happened? Where are the others? You have to try…” Sasakibe tries again.

“She’s not gonna answer you, Lieutenant,” Renji says.

Sasakibe stands up and sighs. “Total brain-lock,” he says. “She’s traumatized.”

“Physically, she’s okay,” Soifon says. “Borderline malnutrition, but I don’t think there’s any permanent damage.” She unsnaps the bio-monitoring cuff.

“How ‘bout I try talking to her, Lieutenant?” Renji suggests.

Sasakibe shrugs. “Be my guest,” he says.

Soifon and Sasakibe leave the office, and Sasakibe goes to join Kurotsuchi, Bazz-B, and Ise at a computer terminal. Bazz-B has managed to get the CPU main computer online and reading out, and now he’s scanning for the Personal Data-Transmitters that every offplanet scientist has surgically implanted in them.

Renji takes a chair and sits down in front of Inoue before gently brushing her unkempt hair out of her eyes. “Here, have this,” he says, holding the mug out to her. “It’s some hot cocoa.”

Inoue slowly, cautiously takes the mug and raises it to her lips. She drinks almost mechanically, and a little bit spills down her chin.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Renji asks conversationally. “That’s okay. Most people talk a lot, but they don’t say much.”

He gently takes the cup from her and sets it down before wiping Inoue’s chin clean with a cloth.

“Oh. Looks like I made a clean spot,” Renji continues. “Now I’ll have to do the whole thing.”

Renji pours a small amount of water from his canteen onto the cloth and begins gently wiping the dirt off Inoue’s face. For the first time, Inoue’s eyes focus on him.

A few minutes later, Inoue’s face is clean from all the dirt and grime, and Renji smiles. “There we go. Aren’t you a pretty girl?” he says. “Hard ta believe you were underneath all that dirt.”

He feels some sort of brotherly instinct as he looks at Inoue, like he wants to protect her and keep her safe. “I dunno how you managed to stay alive for so long, but you’re a brave young woman, Hime,” he says, the nickname coming so naturally.

Right then, he hears Inoue speak, but her voice is almost inaudible. “Ori… me…”

Renji leans closer. “What did you say?” he asks.

“Orihime,” she says, her voice so timid. “My n-name’s Orihime. Nobody calls me ‘Hime’ except my brother.”

A smile crosses Renji’s face. “Well, ‘Orihime’ it is, then,” he says. “My name’s Abarai. It’s nice to meet you.” He then glances at the bear that’s still clutched under one arm. “And who’s that?”

Orihime glances at the bear. “Enraku.”

“And what about your brother?” Renji asks. “What’s his name?”

“Sora…”

Renji nods. “Was he a scientist here?” he asks.

Orihime slowly nods her head.

“Where is he? And everyone else?” he asks.

“They’re dead, alright? Can I go now?” Orihime asks flatly.

Renji looks at her and feels his heart aching. “I’m sorry,” he whispers sincerely. “Don’t you think you’ll be safe here with us?”

Orihime shakes her head, but Renji tries again.

“We’re here to protect you, Orihime,” he says. “We’re Marines.”

“It won’t make any difference,” Orihime tells him.

Renji just looks at her, chilled both by the statement and by the situation that could’ve produced this outlook in her.

He decides to share his own experience with her. God knows she needs all the support she can get. “You know… I understand how you feel,” he says. “I lost my previous unit four years ago.”

Orihime looks at him with mild curiosity in her eyes.

“They were all killed by… by the exact same creature,” Renji tells her.

That gets a reaction. Orihime looks at him in shock. “R-Really?” she asks.

Renji nods. “Yeah. I’m the only one who survived.”

“Oh…” Orihime regards him sadly. “I’m so sorry.”

Before Renji can say anymore, he suddenly hears Bazz-B speaking. “Stop your grinnin’ and drop your linen!” he calls.

At that, Renji gets up and encourages Orihime to follow him as they leave the office.

“I found ‘em!” Bazz-B declares triumphantly.

“Alive?” Sasakibe asks.

“Unknown. But it looks like all of ‘em,” Bazz-B says. “They’re over at the processing station… third sublevel under the south tower.”

Renji leans over to look at the screen and is stunned to see a large cluster of flashing blue dots clumped tightly in one area. “Looks like a goddamn town hall meeting,” he says.

“Even better, there’s a faster way to get to the processor without having to use the APC,” Bazz-B continues, pointing at the terminal screen as he explains. “In the basement, there’s an underground access tunnel that leads from the complex to the sublevel. We can use that to get to the processing station.”

“Alright, let’s saddle up,” Sasakibe says.

Renji turns to Orihime. “Will you stay here with Ise?” he asks. “Don’t worry, she’ll take care of you.”

Orihime nods. “Okay.”

Ise comes up to Orihime. “I’ll watch over her,” she promises.

“You can also watch over us too,” Bazz-B tells her. “I managed to connect our biomonitors and cameras with the terminals here, so you can also get a look.”

“Alright, sweethearts, let’s get goin’! They ain’t payin’ us by the hour!” Zaraki orders.

Renji heads down to the basement with Sasakibe and the rest of the Marines. After Bazz-B runs another bypass on the door to the stairwell that leads to the access tunnel, they head down until they reach the mouth of the tunnel.

Again, Renji can’t help but hesitate when they reach the entrance to the tunnel. It’s pitch-black and quiet, and Renji shivers as that wave of dread washes over him yet again.

Sasakibe leads the way, shining his flashlight into the tunnel. No one says a word, and the only sounds in the tunnel are their footsteps and motion trackers.

When they near the entrance to the sublevel, Renji stares at the view of the processor before them.

The processor is an endless maze of conduits and pressure valves, much like an oil refinery. A thrum of functioning machine systems echoes throughout the whole place. Everyone’s lights filter through many levels of steel mesh floor, catwalks above, and pipes.

They emerge into the sublevel only to come across a bizarre sight.

Among the refinery-esque network of pipes and conduits, there’s something new and inhuman. Renji swallows his nerves as his dread gets even stronger. It’s exactly what he saw on Iwashiro.

It’s a structure of sorts, made from some sort of strange encrusted substance. The structure almost resembles a large-scale nest, and extends far back into the complex of the machinery. Renji finds himself feeling unclean and filthy just from looking at the structure.

“What is this?” Sasakibe asks, glancing at Renji.

Renji shakes his head. “I don’t know,” he says sincerely.

Sasakibe sighs. “Proceed inside,” he orders everyone.

For a few minutes, the Marines continue through the corded tunnels. It’s a biomechanical lattice, almost like bone marrow. There’s something very organic and visceral about the structure and the atmosphere. The air is thick with steam and they can hear the sound of trickling water.

It’s almost as if the place is alive.

Soifon brushes her fingers against the substance. “Looks like some sort of secreted resin,” she observes.

“Nobody touch nothin’,” Zaraki orders.

 _“But secreted from what?”_ Ise asks through their headsets.

“Abarai, what do you think?” Soifon asks.

Renji shakes his head. “I’m not too sure.”

“Looks structural,” Hisagi says. “It’s almost like a nest.”

Renji’s mouth feels dry. It’s really hot, almost humid, and as they go deeper, the temperature just keeps on rising. A few strands of his hair cling to his sweaty face, and even more, Renji can feel the sweat making his clothes stick to his body.

He’s gonna need a long shower once this shit’s over.

“Hotter than hell in here,” Madarame mutters.

“Yeah… but it’s a dry heat,” Bazz-B snarks.

“Knock it off, Black,” Zaraki orders.

They continue walking for a short while, and just as they reach the end of the tunnel, they suddenly hear Ise speak through all their headsets.

 _“Hold on for a minute, please?”_ she asks. _“Lieutenant, what do those pulse rifles fire?”_

“Ten millimeter, explosive-tipped caseless, standard light-armour piercing round,” Sasakibe answers. “Why?”

 _“Look where you are. You’re under the primary heat exchangers,”_ Ise tells them. _“If you fire your weapons in there, you’ll rupture the cooling system.”_

Sasakibe’s eyes widen in realization. “Shit…” he curses. “We can’t go any further, we need to fall back now. Either that, or use flame units only.”

However, Renji isn’t listening because he sees something on the walls at the other end that catches his attention. “Hold on…” he says, his voice distracted as he makes his way towards it.

“Abarai?” Zaraki’s voice is distant. “Abarai, what are you doing?”

Renji stops, and his face pales. “Fuck…” he whispers, sounding horrified.

Zaraki follows to see what got Renji’s attention, only to stop in his tracks, his expression just as horrified.

“Holy shit…” Zaraki curses quietly.

Two feet, two _human feet in shoes,_ stick out from the wall, gradually leading upwards to a human corpse entombed in a carelessly twisted position. Renji sees the face contorted in an expression of agony. Fuck, it’s like Iwashiro all over again, this wall of macabre horror.

Desiccated, skeletal bodies of all the scientists and researchers are cocooned into the walls with the same translucent resin, their faces frozen in agony, rib-cages burst outwards as if exploded from within… 

Renji swallows, takes a shuddering breath, holds his pulse rifle tighter, and moves on.

 _“Steady, people. Let’s finish our sweep,”_ Zaraki says through the headset. His voice is serious. _“We’re still Marines, and we got a job to do. Keep it movin’.”_

 _“Dios mío...”_  Mila Rose whispers, both disgusted and stunned.

“Doesn’t look like they’ve eaten any of them,” Iba murmurs.

Renji shakes his head. “No… they don’t eat them,” he says darkly. Then, into his headset to everyone, “be really sharp, though. These creatures can camouflage themselves within the resin. They do it so well, people can stand by one of them without even knowing.”

 _“I’ll try and keep a lookout for you,”_ Ise adds.

Walking further, Renji approaches an unfurled, leathery-looking thing on the ground.

An egg.

Next to that is a skeletal mess of dead Facehuggers.

Renji keeps an eye on his motion tracker, its steady beating pulse a small comfort to him.

Suddenly, he hears Soifon shouting.

“Hey, Top! Get over here, we got a live one!” she shouts.

Renji rushes over and is joined by Zaraki just in time to see Soifon before a woman cocooned into the wall. Her face is ghost-white and drained, and her eyes are desperate and pleading.

Soifon’s trying to calm her down. “You’re gonna be alright, you’re gonna be alright,” she reassures urgently.

“Please…” the woman begs hoarsely, trembling. “K-Kill me…”

“Just stay calm. We’re gonna get you outta here. It’s gonna be alright,” Soifon continues, starting to pull at the resin. “Give me a hand! We gotta get her outta here!”

Renji shakes his head when he sees the woman tremble even harder. “No, we gotta kill her,” he insists. “We gotta kill her now!”

“How can you say that?! What do you--?!” Soifon demands incredulously, but she’s interrupted by an agonized groan from the woman.

She’s beginning to convulse.

“Convulsion!” Soifon shouts.

Suddenly, something inside the woman starts pushing against her chest, making the skin stretch grotesquely.

“Soifon, get back!” Zaraki shouts urgently. “Get back!”

“Kill her! Just kill her already!” Renji shouts at them, panic washing over him. His nightmare is happening all over again and no one’s listening to him. _No… oh God, no!_

The woman lets out a piercing scream that rips through everyone’s headsets as she convulses, blood starting to spill from her mouth and leak from her chest. Renji can’t turn away, no matter how much he wants to.

Unshed tears fill Renji’s eyes as the woman’s screams devolve into choking and retching.

Right then, the woman’s chest explodes in a burst of blood and bone, and a small fanged head emerges, shrieking and hissing viciously. Mercifully, the woman looks like she died already.

“No…” Renji whispers.

“Hisagi, flamethrower!” Zaraki shouts, taking the flamethrower from an alarmed Hisagi. “Get back! Flamethrower! Move!”

Aiming the flamethrower at the creature, Zaraki pulls the trigger and shoots a torrent of flames at it, instantly killing it.

Renji swallows and tries to calm himself down, taking a deep breath.

 _“Oh my gosh…”_ Ise’s voice is horrified.

The chestburster’s death shrieks echo through the sublevel and around the nest before it droops down, dead.

Right then, a returning screech fills the air; deeper and from a greater number. Everyone looks up as they tense up.

Renji moves into a defensive position, and so do the rest of the Marines, their rifles and flamethrowers at the ready. He glances down at his motion tracker and hears a steady beeping as it picks up a signal.

“Movement!” Bazz-B calls, also looking at his tracker.

“What’s the position?” Zaraki demands.

“I can’t lock in!”

Renji’s face pales.

“Talk to me, Black!” Zaraki orders.

“Uh, multiple signals! They’re closing!” Bazz-B shouts back.

And he’s right. Renji’s picking up signals all around them on his tracker, which is emitting beeps steadily increasing in pitch, and he doesn’t like it.

“Go to infrared, people,” Zaraki calls. “Look sharp!”

 _“We need to fall back,”_ Sasakibe urges through everyone’s headsets.

 _“Get out of there, you guys…”_ Ise warns, her voice worried.

“I got signals, I got readings in front _and_ behind!” Bazz-B announces, his voice becoming increasingly nervous.

“Where, man? I don’t see shit!” Hisagi retorts.

“Look, I’m tellin’ you. There’s something moving, and it ain’t us!” Bazz-B insists. “Tracker’s off the scale, man. They’re all around us, man! Fuck!”

The beeping from the motion trackers are getting more frequent, more intense, and more high-pitched. Renji’s looking around him, his eyes focused carefully on the walls.

Something moves behind Soifon. Renji’s eyes widen in shock.

“Soifon! Behind you!” he shouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The action's gonna start very quickly in the next chapter, so I do hope you look forward to it. Writing this chapter, I had to rewatch a lot of clips from _Aliens_ and even read through the first draft of the screenplay online for references. Plus, I had to read information from the AvP wiki. 
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	5. Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aliens ambush the Marines, and in their attempt to escape, Renji, Mila Rose, Bazz-B, Sasakibe, Ise, Orihime, and Kurotsuchi are separated and end up trapped in the complex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now the action starts! For the action scenes, I recommend listening to "Futile Escape" from the _Aliens_ soundtrack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpW2AjQbdbs), but start at 3:07 for the fast-paced, militaristic action music. It'll make this chapter all the more fast-paced, trust me :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Soifon whirls around just in time to see a nightmarish silhouette lunging out at her, only seconds from grabbing her in its creepy, three-fingered hands.

Her eyes widen and she pulls the trigger on her flamethrower.

The creature is engulfed in a jet of fire, and it screeches hideously as it burns and collapses.

“Oh… Oh my gosh…” she whispers, moving away from the wall.

“What the fuck is that thing?!” Hisagi shouts.

Renji stares in horror at the still-burning corpse of the creature. It looks different from the ones he saw on Iwashiro, but it’s all the same eight-foot-tall creatures that have plagued Renji’s nightmares for four years now.

The creatures are muted black in colour, and have a skeletal, biomechanical frame with dorsal tubes on their backs that’s both oddly delicate, yet tough at the same time. Their tails are sharp and pointed with a stinger. They don’t have any eyes or real facial features other than razor-sharp teeth in a drooling, perpetually leering mouth that hide a set of inner jaws. But the most standout feature is the elongated, cylindrical head with a carapace of ridges that each alien has.

Aggressive yet intelligent, persistent yet sadistic, they are the stuff of nightmares, the most fearsome alien lifeform ever discovered. The ultimate predator.

Instantly, Renji hears Mila Rose’s battle cry.

“Let’s roooock!” Mila Rose shouts.

“Yeeeaahh!” Muguruma shouts in response, and then they both open fire with their smartguns.

The sounds of her and Muguruma’s smartguns firing ring throughout the place, mixed in with the sounds of pulse rifles, flamethrowers, and alien shrieks and roars. Fuck the heat exchangers, it’s either shoot or get killed now.

One of them lunges towards Renji, but he’s prepared. “Eat this, motherfucker!” he yells, firing several rounds at the creature.

The alien shrieks as it’s destroyed in a shower of concentrated acid.

“Watch out for the blood! Don’t let it splash you!” Renji shouts through his headset.

He hears Madarame and Bazz-B shouting profanities at the aliens as they shoot rapidly, and Zaraki is firing two more aliens with his flamethrower.

“Yeah, come and get it, motherfuckers!” Madarame yells as he shoots away.

“Don’t get cocky, ya bastards!” Iba snarls.

“Yeeeaahh! Die, motherfucker! Come and get it, baby! Fuck you!” Bazz-B shouts, shooting the aliens like some kind of warrior.

The shooting continues for some time before they hear Sasakibe come through their headsets.

 _“Fall back, Marines!”_ Sasakibe orders urgently. _“Zaraki, lay a suppressing fire and fall back by squads now! Ise, Kurotsuchi, get the girl and run to the APC right now! You copy?”_

 _“Of course!”_ Ise says urgently.

“Yeah, I fucking copy!” Zaraki shouts, shooting a torrent of fire at three aliens that try to ambush him. “Let’s fall back, people! Lay a suppressing fire with your flamethrowers!”

Renji begins to fall back along with everyone else, still firing at the aliens.

“Marines! We are leaving!” he shouts at Mila Rose and Muguruma, getting them to follow.

Mila Rose and Muguruma provide a covering fire as they fall back the way they came from.

“Go, go, go! Let’s get outta here!” Zaraki shouts.

They run through the tunnel, firing at whatever aliens are still in pursuit. As they’re running, Renji hears a cry of pain from behind him and he turns to see Sasakibe with a stinger buried in his shoulder.

“Lieutenant!” Muguruma slams his smartgun into the alien, making it withdraw its stinger as it’s thrown to the ground, and shoots at it until it’s dead.

“Is he…?” Renji calls, worried that they’ve already lost someone.

“Don’t worry, the Lieutenant’s still alive!” Muguruma reassures. “He’s paralyzed and unconscious.”

“Come on, man!” Bazz-B picks up the bleeding and unconscious Sasakibe and drapes him over his back before they start running again.

It doesn’t take long before they get back to the complex.

“To the APC! Now!” Zaraki orders as they reach the entrance to the basement.

Renji’s the last one to emerge from the tunnel, and he hastily slams the doors shut before any of the aliens can follow them. “You guys go on ahead!” he shouts to Zaraki and the other Marines. “I’ll seal these doors so they can’t follow!”

“You fuckin’ crazy or somethin’?! No way you’re stayin’ here alone!” Zaraki shouts.

“Hold it, Sarge! I’ll help him!” Mila Rose says. “You go ahead.”

Zaraki looks reluctant, but he nods. “Very well then,” he says. “Be quick, got it?”

While Zaraki follows the others to the APC, Renji gets out his ME3 Hand Welder. Flipping the protective screen up, Renji gets to work with sealing one part of the door while Mila Rose starts sealing the other part.

On the other side, they can hear the aliens’ screeches getting closer and closer just as they finish up.

“Let’s seal the basement doors too,” Renji insists.

He and Mila Rose rush out of the stairwell, slam the door shut, and get to work on sealing it tight as fast as they can. But just as they finish up, emergency lights start flashing red, and an automated announcement comes over the P.A. system.

_“Attention. The emergency lockdown has now been activated. The crisis level has been raised to: Level Three. All personnel must return to the building immediately or proceed to the designated alternative gathering point. The main gate and all entrances to the Hokutan Research Facility will be shut down in T-minus: 10 seconds.”_

“What the hell?!” Mila Rose demands, completely bewildered.

“Fuck…” Renji curses. “Let’s go! Hurry!”

Renji and Mila Rose bolt for the entrance, still holding their guns at the ready just in case. As they run, Renji keeps his eyes out at every shadow, every dark place, searching for any aliens that could be hiding within the darkness of the facility.

Nothing jumps out at them, but they’re too late. By the time they get to the main entrance, the door is already shut tight, and the PA system is announcing that the lockdown will be automatically lifted in seven hours. Even more, they see Ise, Orihime, Kurotsuchi, Bazz-B, and an unconscious Sasakibe at the door.

“What the hell’s going on?” Renji demands. “Why’s the door closed? Where’s everyone else?”

“Everyone else managed to get out, but Kurotsuchi delayed us by takin’ too fucking long with his goddamn _research.”_ Bazz-B snaps, glaring at Kurotsuchi. “Fucking bastard!”

“Then the lockdown was somehow triggered and the doors closed before any of us could escape,” Ise cuts in, trying to prevent a fight. “Bazz-B’s been trying to run a bypass, but it won’t open.”

Renji is confused. “The hell? Why can’t you get it open, Bazz?” he asks.

“The security’s tightened!” Bazz-B tells him, sounding panicked. “Some kind of defensive countermeasure, and it’s resisting, no matter what I do.”

“Fuck!” Renji curses.

Did the others make it back to the APC?

Right then…

 _“Abarai? Mila Rose? Black? Where the fuck are you guys?! Where's the Lieutenant?!”_ Zaraki demands through their headsets.

Renji sighs in relief. “Oh, thank fate…” he whispers. “Is everyone alive?”

 _“Yep, everyone’s alive and whole right now,”_ Zaraki says. _“We’re in the APC right now. But what the hell happened to you? Where are the civilians?”_

“The civilians are with us. But Sarge… we got a problem,” Renji says, trying not to panic. “Some kind of lockdown got triggered, and the doors closed before Bazz, Sasakibe, and the others could get out. We can’t get out now, and the lockdown will only lift automatically in seven hours.”

 _“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”_ Zaraki demands.

“It’s a Level Three crisis, the most serious kind,” Ise explains. “That’s how these kind of lockdowns work. Security heightens and hacking through doors become impossible.”

Kurotsuchi regards Renji with disdain. “I thought someone of your caliber would understand this kind of thing,” he snarks.

Renji narrows his eyes. “Watch it, Kurotsuchi,” he snaps harshly. “I’m in no mood for your bullshit now.”

Bazz-B shakes his head, his voice steadily becoming panicky. “This can’t be happenin’, man… this can’t be happenin’...”

There’s a moment of silence as they take in the situation. Emergency lights are still flashing, and Renji’s mind is trying to think of another plan when he remembers the landing bay tower.

“If we had CN-20, we could just roll ‘em in there and nerve gas the whole fucking nest,” Mila Rose is saying.

“But even if you had CN-20, you don’t know if it’ll even affect them,” Ise points out.

“Look, man, let’s just bug out and call it even, alright?” Bazz-B insists. “What are we even talkin’ about this for?”

“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit,” Renji says.

Silence falls over the group as they turn to look at Renji, who simply shrugs. “It’s the only way to be sure,” he adds.

Bazz-B nods in agreement, making his opinion loud and clear with a, “Fuckin’ A!”, before Kurotsuchi jumps in and protests.

“Wait a minute!” Kurotsuchi snaps. “This facility has a substantial yen value attached to it, so no one’s nuking anything!”

“Yeah? Well, they can bill me!” Renji retorts.

Kurotsuchi sighs and rolls his eyes. “Look, I get that this is an emotional moment for you,” he says derisively, “but won’t you Marines just use your brains for a moment? This is clearly an important species we’re dealing with, and neither you nor I nor anybody has the right to arbitrarily exterminate them.”

“Wrong!” Renji says incredulously. God, he just wants to punch this asshole in the face.

“Yeah, watch us,” Mila Rose challenges, raising an eyebrow as if daring him to say something.

Bazz-B glares at Kurotsuchi. “Maybe you haven’t been keepin’ up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!” he snaps.

Kurotsuchi directs his attention to a thoughtful-looking Ise. “Well?! Aren’t you going to say anything?!” he demands. “We’re not authorized to allow this kind of action at all!”

Ise glances at Kurotsuchi, her eyebrows raised. “Well, this operation is under military jurisdiction,” she tells him. “And with Lieutenant Sasakibe out of commission right now, this means that Sergeant Zaraki and Corporal Abarai are next in chain of command.”

Kurotsuchi looks incredulous. He’s starting to throw a bitch fit, and it’s not pretty. “Are you serious?! This is a multi-million yen installation, and they can’t make those kinds of decisions, they’re just grunts!” he argues. Then, offhandedly and insincerely, he adds, “no offense”.

 _Just a grunt?_ Renji raises an eyebrow at Kurotsuchi. “None taken,” he says coldly before speaking into his headset. “Well, Sarge? What do you say? You get the others to the dropship, then pick us up from the landing bay tower. Then we take off and nuke this place from orbit. How’s that sound?” he asks.

 _“Good idea,”_ Zaraki agrees. _“Let’s get to the dropship. Yadomaru, Kira, you copy?”_

There’s a brief silence before Yadomaru’s voice comes through their headsets, and she sounds out of breath.

 _“Bad news,”_ Yadomaru says, trying to catch her breath. _“Some of those aliens came into the dropship. We managed to kill them, but they’ve done some damage to the ship. We’ll be able to do some quick repairs, but they’ll only last for dust-off to the_ Gonryomaru. _We’ll have to get the second dropship down here.”_

Renji closes his eyes, frustrated. “Shit,” he says.

Bazz-B, who’s been on the verge of panic, is now almost hysterical. “Well, that’s great,” he says, sounding like he’s about to break down. “That’s just fuckin’ great, man! Now what the fuck are we supposed to do?! We’re in some real pretty shit now, man!”

Having heard enough, Renji grabs Bazz-B by the shirt. “Are you finished?” he asks, releasing him.

Sighing, he asks, “how long will it take?”

 _“Forty minutes to repair the ship,”_ Kira says. _“Fifteen minutes to prep for dust-off, fifty minutes flight time to the_ Gonryomaru, _and then thirty minutes to prep the second dropship with fifty minutes flight time back down to the complex.”_

Renji nods. “Alright,” he says. “Sarge, you head to the dropship and stand guard while Kira and Yadomaru do the repairs. Please try and hurry.”

“Game over, man! Game over!” Bazz-B is still on the verge of hysterics.

 _“Of course,”_ Zaraki agrees. _“We’ll see you in a few hours, and we’ll keep in touch every now and then. Stay sharp.”_

Then, Orihime speaks.

“We should head back,” she says softly. “I need to treat the Lieutenant. Besides, it’s getting dark soon. And they mostly come at night. Mostly.”

* * *

A short while later, they are back in Operations. Renji had helped Bazz-B in carrying Sasakibe, and now the Lieutenant is laying down in medical, his injuries already treated and bandaged by Orihime.

“So… what do we have in terms of weapons?” Ise asks. “I saw Akon come inside with some weapons as you were going to the basement. Said something about ‘lightening the load inside the APC’.”

“He did?” Renji asks, mildly surprised. However, he heads over to the weapons in question and looks through them.

“Alright…” Renji says, picking up the weapons and setting them down on the table. “We got four pulse rifles here, with about a hundred rounds each.” He sets down the pulse rifles and ammo.

He then sets down the grenades. “There’s, uh, fifteen M40 grenades--” He sees Orihime curiously reaching for one of them out of the corner of his eye and blocks her hand with his arm. “Whoa, don’t touch that. It’s dangerous.”

Orihime retracts her hand.

“And there’s two flamethrowers with seven canisters of fuel.” Renji sets them down. “Good news, though… we got four robot-sentry units.”

Renji opens up one of the large cases to show the servo-actuated machine gun inside. “They really kick ass,” he says. “I think we should set them up, just in case. But we’ll have to set them up in the position to do the most damage.”

“At the fuckin’ front door, man!” Bazz-B declares.

Mila Rose rolls her eyes, but says nothing.

“We’ll need to be more strategic, Bazz,” Renji tells him. “First, we have to figure out how they’re getting in. And then, we can set them up and hold tight in here while waiting.”

Ise raises her hand. “Let’s say the worst comes to worst,” she says tentatively. “How long after we’re declared overdue can we expect a rescue?”

Renji pauses, then speaks. “Seventeen days,” he says.

“Seventeen days?!” Bazz-B demands. “Hey, I don’t wanna rain on anyone’s parade, but we won’t last seventeen _hours_ if that’s the case!”

“Bazz-”

“Those things are gonna come in here like they did before, they’re gonna come in here and get us, man, long before-”

“Hey! Hey!” Ise raises her voice, much to Renji’s surprise, and Bazz-B shuts up.

“This civilian woman here lasted longer than that with no weapons and no training,” Ise tells him as she gestures to Orihime, her voice firm. “Right?”

Orihime salutes Bazz-B smartly, and Renji has to suppress the urge to chuckle.

Bazz-B laughs humorlessly. “Well, why don’t you put her in charge, man?!”

“You need to start dealing with it, Bazz!” Renji tells him firmly. “Listen, just deal with it because we need you, not your bullshit. Now, I want you to get a terminal and call up some kind of floor-plan file. Maintenance schematics, construction blueprints, anything that shows the layout of this place. We need to see air ducts, access tunnels, basements, every possible way into this wing.”

Bazz-B sobers himself up and nods. “Alright,” he says. “Affirmative.”

Kurotsuchi clears his throat. “I’ll be in medical. I’d like to continue my analysis,” he says.

“Yeah, you do that,” Renji mutters before turning to Ise. “Keep an eye on him, please? And check up on Sasakibe if you can.”

“Of course,” Ise says.

Shortly after Ise and Kurotsuchi leave, Renji hears Zaraki’s voice come through his headset. _“Abarai, can you read me? Come in, Abarai,”_ Zaraki says.

“Affirmative. Go ahead, Sarge,” Renji responds.

_“Repairs are still ongoing, but so far, no more creatures have shown up. Everyone’s still alive.”_

“That’s good.” Renji smiles for a brief moment before continuing. “No one’s lost here yet, but we’re going to figure out our escape path and use these robot sentries to our advantage.”

 _“Good idea. We should be finished with repairs soon. Sit tight, and stay alive,”_ Zaraki says.

“Affirmative. Abarai out.”

Renji just stares out the window at the unearthly landscape of LV-352. The rain has finally stopped, and the wind blows dust across the terrain. It’s twilight, and Renji can hear the wind howling mournfully outside.

At least no one has died yet. Renji can only hope it stays that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was pretty fun to write, especially the shootout scene. Most difficult was trying to describe the aliens, but I hope I managed to do a good job. As for the lockdown scene, that's my own twist to this story.
> 
> Sasakibe being paralyzed by the alien's tail comes from the first draft of the original script, where the same thing happens during the escape to the (less-competent, inexperienced) Gorman, who ends up getting knocked unconscious by crates in the movie.
> 
> And of course, I couldn't go without including these gems: 
> 
> \- "Let's rock!" (Vasquez)  
> \- "Game over, man! Game over!" (Hudson)  
> \- "I say we take off and nuke this site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." (Ripley)  
> \- "Marines! We are leaving!" (Hicks)  
> \- "They mostly come at night. Mostly." (Newt)
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	6. Stay Frosty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As they plan their escape from the facility, Renji bonds with Orihime and Nanao discovers that the lockdown isn't all that accidental.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 6, where they plan their escape. And plus, some more elaboration on Weyland-Yutani's shady nature and some more of Nanao's perspective. I also added a small reference to Ridley Scott's _Alien_ with the lockdown control panel being similar to the self-destruct panel on the _Nostromo_. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Within a short time, Bazz-B has pulled up the schematics of the place on a horizontal video-screen, and now everyone is gathered around the screen as they discuss their plan of action.

“Looks like they’ve been using these service tunnels to move back and forth,” Renji observes.

He feels a small nudge behind him, and he glances over his shoulder to see Orihime trying to get a peek. Stifling a chuckle, Renji steps out of the way a little bit so that Orihime can see the screen as well.

“Yeah, they run from the processing station to the sublevel here in the complex,” Bazz-B says, tracing a line on the ground plan with his finger.

“Get us in there,” Ise says.

Bazz-B fiddles with the controls until the viewscreen focuses upon the tunnel.

“There’s a pressure door at this end,” Ise points out. “Couldn’t we put one of the robot-sentry units in the tunnel and seal the door?”

Renji nods thoughtfully. “Yeah, that could work,” he says. “But we gotta consider them getting into the complex too.”

“Right, so we repair the barricades at these two intersections,” Ise continues.

“Yeah.”

“And weld plate steel over these ducts here and here. That way, they can only come at us from these two corridors.”

 _Not bad._ “And then we’ll need to do the same here and here, cutting off access there,” Renji says, pointing at each part of the schematics.

Ise nods. “Yes,” she says.

“All right, and then we put the other sentry units here and here,” Renji continues.

“Yes, like that.”

Renji looks at Ise, obviously impressed. “Outstanding. Now all we need is a deck of cards,” he says.

“But we also gotta figure out our escape plan too,” Mila Rose points out. “How can we get to the landing bay tower, and how can we get past the lockdown?”

Orihime leans over the viewscreen. “So, we’re here now,” she says, pointing at their location. “The landing bay tower is all the way over here. There’s the entrance.” She points at D-Block, where the south lock entrance is. “It’s five stories tall, and the landing bay is up on the roof of the tower.”

Renji smiles at Orihime. “Thanks,” he says, gently ruffling her hair. “Okay, so we set up the sentry units and seal off these tunnels. Then as soon as we get Yadomaru’s signal, we head straight for the landing bay tower.”

“As for the lockdown…” Ise trails off. “I’ll try and figure a way around it once we’ve set everything up. The technology used for the lockdown panel is rather old, but I’ve worked with that kind of stuff before, so I should be able to do it.”

“Perfect,” Renji says. “Alright, let’s move like we got a purpose, people.”

“Affirmative,” Bazz-B says.

Orihime salutes. “Affirmative,” she says.

Renji smiles at her for a brief moment, but then puts his game face on. “Let’s do it,” he says.

He's survived these things before, and he can do it again.

* * *

While Bazz-B and Mila Rose are arming and sealing off the tunnels, Renji and Ise repair some of the barricades away from D-Block. They make sure to work fast, and before long, the barricades are repaired and functional.

“For what it’s worth,” Renji says, banging on the last one.

Ise looks at him curiously. “Have you shipped out for Weyland-Yutani before?” she asks.

They’re walking back to Operations.

Renji nods. “Yeah, a couple times,” he says. “I have a friend who works for them as a scientist.”

“Do you like shipping out for the Company?”

At that, Renji hesitates. “No, I don’t,” he says honestly. “After what happened four years ago, I hate them.”

“What do you mean?” Ise asks.

Renji sighs. “After I got back to Gateway, WeYu representatives tried to push my story under the rug,” he explains. “They tried to gaslight me, pick at my story, tell me that I was probably hallucinating, and when I refused to go along with them, they tried to persuade the Gotei to discharge me.” He shakes his head. “If it wasn’t for Colonel Kyoraku, I would’ve been dishonourably discharged. Instead, I got three months of leave, and I got to keep my rank.”

It's the main reason why Renji hasn't bothered trying to pursue a lawsuit against the Company. They're too corrupt, and there's a high chance of him losing his job.

Ise looks stunned. “I… I had no idea…” she whispers. “How can they be so heartless?”

Renji glances at her. “Weyland-Yutani is shady as fuck, okay?” he tells her, the same thing he told Rukia once. “And the first chance they get, they’ll throw you to the wolves to protect the fat cats in charge. Remember what you told me about Kurotsuchi? How he’s done some shady stuff?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And remember how he tried to convince me to leave this place intact?” Renji shakes his head and looks at her firmly. “I have a bad feeling about him. He's definitely got some hidden agenda going on. Don’t let Kurotsuchi try and convince you to leave those creatures alone. You can’t win against them, no matter what.”

Ise nods. “Alright.”

The both of them head back to Operations to set up the sentry-unit automation, and Ise heads down to medical to speak with Kurotsuchi. Renji also keeps in touch with Zaraki and the other Marines to see how they’re doing with repairs. As it turns out, they’re almost done, and they’ll be preparing for dust-off in fifteen minutes.

About half an hour later, Bazz-B and Mila Rose report to him.

 _“Black here,”_ Bazz-B says into the headset. _“AMB sentries A and B are in place and keyed. We’re sealing the tunnel.”_

“Roger. Stand by,” Renji says, fiddling with the controls. “Arming now. Test it, Bazz.”

Renji can hear the rapid firing even in Operations.

 _“Testing successful. Moving to next position,”_ Mila Rose says.

“Copy.”

Within another twenty minutes, Bazz-B and Mila Rose have set up the second set, and after another successful test, Renji orders them back to Operations.

Right then, Orihime reenters Operations, having gone down to medical to check on Sasakibe.

“How’s he doing?” Renji asks her.

“He should wake up soon,” Orihime says. “I isolated some sort of neuromuscular toxin that’s responsible for the paralysis. It’s metabolizing now.”

“Good.”

Orihime smiles proudly. “Sora-nii-chan taught this stuff to me,” she says. “When I took breaks from the medical facility, he’d show me how certain toxins work and how I can treat them as well.”

The smile fades from her face, and Orihime looks down. “He… He’s the only one who’s taken care of me since I was a kid,” she says softly. “And now he’s dead.”

Renji gets a better look at her face and that’s when he sees the dark circles under her teary eyes. Orihime looks exhausted, like she hasn’t slept in so long. Her shoulders sag as she sits down, and it's obvious that the fear has taken its toll on her.

“You look tired,” he says gently. “How long has it been since you last got any sleep?”

Orihime shakes her head. “Way too long,” she says. “I haven’t slept since… since the incident happened. I was in the medical facility when the… the chestburster came out of that man.”

Renji nods slowly. “Yeah… that’s not something you can just get over, huh?” he says somberly.

“Where did those creatures come from?” Orihime asks.

“I don’t know, Orihime,” Renji says honestly. “That’s the truth. I’ve never seen them until four years ago.”

Orihime averts her eyes. "I'm sorry for biting your hand," she says shyly.

Renji chuckles. "No worries," he says. "I ain't gonna hold it against you."

Her eyes are beginning to droop down and Renji can see that she needs sleep.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, Orihime?” he suggests. “You’ll need it for later.”

Orihime looks hesitant, and that’s when Renji has an idea. He reaches down to his utility belt and takes his combat knife out.

“Here,” he says, handing it to her. “Keep it with you, just in case.”

Orihime is surprised, but she smiles gratefully at Renji. “Thank you,” she says, taking the knife.

“No problem,” Renji says, returning the smile. “Now get some sleep.”

Right then, Mila Rose and Bazz-B return to Operations just as Orihime lies down on a makeshift cot, curling up and closing her eyes. She’s out like a light, and doesn’t wake up even when an alarm starts to sound.

“They’re coming,” Mila Rose says. “They’re in the tunnel.”

“Let’s see how these babies work then,” Renji says.

* * *

Ise ponders over Renji’s words about Weyland-Yutani as she enters the medlab.

She’s worked with Weyland-Yutani for some time now, and she’s aware that there are some things about the Company that are rather suspicious. Despite their pioneering in Faster-than-Light travel, synthetic manufacture, terraforming, and deep-space transport, among other fields, the Company is deeply corrupt.

Even the lowest of employees are aware of the corruption that runs deep in the Company. Ise has even heard that it’s common knowledge among the commercial haulage fleet that senior management continually bribe and pay off inspectors rather than allow thorough safety inspections and reviews of their vessels.

And that’s not going into the stuff that Ise’s heard about in the Science Department, especially regarding Kurotsuchi.

But she can’t say anything about it. Ise knows what happens to people who dare speak up against the Company. Suddenly, they’re missing the next day, and she’s told that they’ve simply ‘transferred to a new location’.

But Ise knows better. She knows what they really mean by that.

As she goes through the terminal in the medlab, Ise notices some security camera footage on the screen, so she pulls it up. Going through each clip, Ise lands on the camera feed from Operations. The time code indicates that it’s shortly before the lockdown was activated.

What she sees shocks her completely.

On the camera feed, Kurotsuchi is fiddling with the emergency lockdown panel in Operations, shortly before Bazz-B had come to yell at him to hurry up. Ise watches, appalled, as Kurotsuchi punches in the verification of the bolt codes, verifies the bolt clamp releases, removes the four cylinders, activates their switches, and verifies the lockdown, one-by-one.

And then, just as he finishes up the last one, Kurotsuchi comes to the entrance as Bazz-B comes to tell him to leave.

Ise is stunned speechless. Her heart is pounding against her chest and her hands curl into fists as she trembles with anger. She glances at Kurotsuchi in the lab from the corner of her eyes and takes a deep breath.

 _Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Calm down._ She thinks to herself as she stands up and goes over to him.

Kurotsuchi is writing down some notes after analyzing the dead Facehugger. “When you’re done, destroy those specimens immediately, alright?” Ise tells him, trying to keep her voice level.

Kurotsuchi sets his pen down and stares unpleasantly at Ise. “We’re going to keep them alive in stasis for return to the Company labs,” he says.

“What?” Ise blinks in surprise.

“Listen to me, Ise,” Kurotsuchi starts. “Those two specimens are worth millions to the Bioweapons Division. And if you’re smart, we can both come out of this as heroes, and we’ll be set up for life.”

She can’t believe what she’s hearing. “You’re crazy, Kurotsuchi. You know that?” Ise tells him. “Do you really think we can get a dangerous organism like that past ICC quarantine? You know, Section 22350 of the Commerce Code?”

“I see you’ve been doing some homework,” Kurotsuchi says. “But they can’t impound it if they don’t know about it.”

Ise feels her self-restraint beginning to tear. “Oh, they’ll know about it, Kurotsuchi. From me,” she says, steadily getting angrier. “Just like how they’ll know that you triggered the emergency lockdown and trapped us in here.” She practically spits those words out.

“Now, wait a minute-” Kurotsuchi protests, but Ise has no time to hear his excuses.

“I saw the security camera feed, Kurotsuchi,” she interrupts. “You activated the emergency lockdown just as we were trying to escape. You wanted to trap us all in here with those… those things!”

Ise feels like she’s about to break down.

“Why?” she whispers. “Why would you do this?! You’re a goddamn psychopath!” She practically snarls the last part.

Her fury is peaking, and it’s getting harder to stay calm.

“Don’t you understand? Such a specimen cannot be allowed to escape!” Kurotsuchi insists. “We’ve never seen anything like it before, so we must gather as much information as we can. And if that means sacrificing a few lives, then so be it. I’m a scientist, and that’s my job. And if I make a major security situation out of this, everyone steps in. Administration steps in, and there’s no exclusive rights for anyone. Nobody wins.”

He’s so callous, so dismissive, so goddamn blasé that Ise feels the last thread of her self-control just snap.

In a moment, Ise has grabbed Kurotsuchi by his collar and pins him to the wall, surprising both him and herself. “‘Nobody wins’? These aliens have _killed people,_ Kurotsuchi! Over a hundred people are dead, and you’ve trapped us and four Marines with these things! Do you have any idea what you’ve done here?” Ise demands.

Her voice becomes threatening. “Oh, I’m gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You’re not gonna sleaze your way out of this one, Kurotsuchi. _Right to the wall.”_

Ise releases him and steps back, shaking slightly as she looks at him with pure, utter loathing and disgust in her eyes.

Kurotsuchi looks at her disdainfully. “I expected better from you, Ise. I thought you’d be smarter than this,” he tells her.

“Well, I’m happy to disappoint you,” Ise says spitefully. “God… it’s always the men like you, feeling less than real men and overcompensating at the expense of lives.”

“Real men like Abarai, you mean?” Kurotsuchi sneers. “Well, I wouldn’t bother getting all starry-eyed, Ise. He’s about to run out of usefulness. Real men have their uses, but they all end up the same way: dead.”

Ise is taken aback, but she doesn’t show it. It’s obvious that Kurotsuchi has some kind of plan going on to get the creatures past quarantine, but what about the others?

She glares at him. “Whatever you’re planning, I’ll figure it out,” Ise threatens. “And then we’ll see who ends up dead. You think these Marines will protect you once they learn what you’ve done?”

It’s just a bluff, though. Ise needs him alive.

They’re interrupted by a slight groan, and Ise notices that Sasakibe is waking up. At the same time, they hear the voice of Akon come through on their headsets.

_“Akon here. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”_

* * *

While Renji is relieved that everyone is almost at the _Gonryomaru,_ he’s worried about this new piece of information now. He stands before the window along with everyone else, including Sasakibe, watching the processing station. For a moment, they see nothing.

Right then, a column of flame jets upwards from the complex at the base of the cone. Next to him, Renji hears a whispered, “oh no” from Ise.

“That’s emergency venting,” Ise says.

Bazz-B laughs humorlessly. “Oh, that’s beautiful, man. That-That just beats it all!”

 _“Exactly,”_ Akon says. _“We noticed it just as we were getting into the dropship and taking off. Looks like all the shooting down there ruptured the exchangers pretty badly.”_

“How long ‘till it blows?” Renji asks.

_“Four hours, with a blast radius of eighteen miles. That’s about equal to ten megatons.”_

Renji closes his eyes. “Perfect,” he says, frustrated. “We got problems.”

“I don’t believe this… I don’t fucking believe this!” Bazz-B shouts.

“Alright, then you’re gonna have to hurry up,” Renji says. “Yadomaru, Kira, once you get up to the _Gonryomaru,_ don’t take too much time with preparation.”

 _“Of course,”_ Kira says.

 _“What about landing on the tower?”_ Yadomaru asks.

“Don’t bother. We’ll have to jump for it, I guess,” Renji says. “We’ll get started on lifting the lockdown. You guys get ready.”

 _“Roger,”_ Yadomaru says.

Renji sighs and rubs his face. This is getting way more hectic than Iwashiro had ever been. “Alright. Ise, can you get started on lifting the lockdown?” he asks her.

Ise is already ahead of him, reading the instructions on the panel. “I can lift it, yes,” she says. “But because seven hours isn’t up yet, the lockdown will only be lifted for an hour. So we will have to hurry to the landing bay tower.”

“Alright. Then lift the lockdown before we leave, after we get the call from-” He’s interrupted when Kurotsuchi tries to talk over him.

“Are you listening to him, Kurotsuchi?!” Ise demands, uncharacteristically furious.

“Well-”

 _“Shut up!”_ Ise half-shrieks, much to Renji’s surprise. Her voice is loud enough to wake up Orihime, who looks confused.

He watches as Ise takes a deep breath. “Go on,” she tells him.

Renji nods slowly, wondering what got her all riled up. “After we get the call from Yadomaru,” he finishes. After relaying the information to Yadomaru and Kira, he turns back to the others.

“So, the creatures have retreated, thanks to the sentry units,” Renji says. “And they’re probably looking for new ways to get in.”

He turns to Bazz-B and Mila Rose. “I want you two walking the perimeter. Keep your eyes and ears out for anything, alright?” Then, in a firm yet gentle voice, “I know we’re all in strung-out shape, but stay frosty and alert. We can’t afford to let any of those bastards in here.”

Mila Rose nods. “All right, man.” She claps Bazz-B’s shoulder. _“Vámonos!”_

They head out of Operations, guns in hand.

Turning to look at Orihime, Renji smiles apologetically at her. “Sorry ‘bout the noise,” he says. “You wanna go sleep in the medlab?”

Orihime nods. “Can… Can you carry me, Abarai-kun?” she asks shyly. “My brother used to carry me to my bed whenever I fell asleep at my desk.”

He can’t help but smile at that. “Sure thing, kiddo,” he says, gently scooping her up in his arms.

“Mm, but I’m not a kid… I’m twenty years old…” Orihime protests sleepily as Renji carries her.

Renji chuckles. “Okay,” he says.

He carries her to a cot in the medlab, making sure she’s comfortable before pulling the blankets over her body. “I’ll be in the other room,” Renji reassures her, stroking her hair. “And I can see you on camera, alright? So don’t worry. And keep that knife close, okay?”

Orihime nods, her eyes drooping down.

Renji turns to leave, but pauses. Turning back to Orihime, he bends down and presses a kiss on her cheek.

“Sleep tight, and don’t dream,” he whispers before leaving the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really relied on the script for this chapter, as well as my memory of the movie. Honestly though, Weyland-Yutani is one of the most corrupt, shady companies to ever exist in fiction. The action will be picking up in the next chapter, though.
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	7. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Marines prepare to leave, Orihime and Nanao end up trapped in the medlab with two Facehuggers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, the action starts to pick up again. Also, there's some of Ise's perspective, some more backstory to the death of Renji's previous unit, and some hands-on instructions on how to use a pulse rifle.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“How much longer till the dropship is prepped?” Renji asks into his headset.

 _“We’re just finishing up,”_ Yadomaru tells him. _“Few more minutes, and we’ll be on our way.”_

 _“And I’m comin’ too,”_ Zaraki adds. _“I ain’t leavin’ none of my men behind.”_

“Affirmative. Abarai out,” Renji says.

He glances over at Ise, who is drinking some cold coffee from her mug. She looks tired, hassled, and drained from the nerve-wracking tension.

Ise glances over at Renji and meets his eyes. “How are you feeling, Corporal?” she asks.

Renji shrugs. When he answers, he sounds distant even to his own ears. “I’m not gonna end up like the others,” he vows to himself. “And I ain’t lettin’ anyone else end up like them too. If it gets to that, I’ll do us all in.”

Getting up from his chair, Renji picks up his pulse rifle. “But, let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that.” He approaches Ise, rifle in hand.

“Here. I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine,” he says with a small smile. “This is an M41A pulse rifle. Ten millimeter with over-and-under thirty millimeter pump-action grenade launcher.”

With casually precise movements of long practice, Renji snaps open the bolt, drops out the magazine, and then hands the rifle to Ise. “Feel the weight,” he tells her.

Ise hefts the weapon, and raises it clumsily as she stands up. “What do I do?” she asks.

Renji just smiles. “Allow me.”

Within a few minutes, Ise has the stock of the rifle near her cheek, and is awkwardly trying to keep up with Renji’s hands-on instructions.

Renji stands close behind her, sliding her hands and fingers under his to the correct position. He places his foot between hers to widen her stance and holds the crook of her elbows away from her body, squaring her shoulders. And then he wraps his arm around her figure to press the rifle back into her shoulder. “Remember, tuck in your shoulder. Keep it pulled in tight there. If you don’t, then you don’t have control of the weapon. Fire like that, you’ll shoot things you don’t want dead.”

Ise sets herself more solidly into position, and Renji briefly realizes how intimate this position is, especially when Ise’s bun brushes against his cheek. But that’s the last thing on his mind right now.

“Lean into it,” Renji tells her, pressing into her to coax her a little.

“Yeah.” Ise does so.

“Now, it will kick some, so be prepared,” Renji warns. He moves back slightly to check her stance, but not enough to break contact. “Now you know how to aim, but don’t lead your target too much. And don’t try and go for headshots. Aim for the center mass.”

“Got it,” Ise says.

“Ammo’s critical now. So short, controlled bursts. The rounds’ll bust through anything, so be sure of your aim,” Renji continues.

He gets a short whiff of Ise’s hair when she nods, and he notes that it has a somewhat clean smell.

“When the counter reads zero, you…”

“I press this up?” Ise asks.

“Yeah,” Renji says.

Ise upends the rifle and pulls out the magazine, leaning back into Renji as she does so.

Renji nods in approval. “Yeah. Now get another one in quick, slap it in hard…”

Ise loads the magazine with a slap and click.

“There. Now you’re ready to rock and roll,” Renji says.

“So… what’s this do?” Ise asks, her fingers brushing the grenade launcher.

“Ah, that’s the grenade launcher. I don’t think you wanna mess with that,” Renji says with a slight smile.

Ise glances at him over her shoulder, and Renji notices a blush on her cheeks.

“You started this,” Ise tells him. “Show me everything. I can handle myself, you know.”

A chuckle escapes Renji’s lips. “Yeah, I noticed.”

So he shows her how to use the grenade launcher, and then has Ise practice aiming, loading and reloading the rifle a few times without any mistakes.

“Good job. You wanna try with a blindfold now?” Renji teases.

“Um… what?” Ise asks, blushing now.

“A Marine’s gotta be able to do it in the dark,” Renji tells her, chuckling. “Nah, I’m just teasing you.”

Ise shakes her head, chuckling slightly before she sobers up. This friendly side to Renji is a sharp contrast to how serious he was a short while ago. “You’re not afraid to… do us all in if we get to the end of the line?” she asks.

Renji sighs, becoming serious again. “I’ve done it once four years ago,” he says. “Sergeant Amagai… he had one of those Facehuggers on his face when I found him. I… I had to kill him to spare him that fate.” He closes his eyes for a brief moment.

“That was four years ago, and I still have nightmares to this day,” Renji says bitterly. “I get a chill whenever I go into darkness, I’m jumpy at every small sound related to vents, and I can still hear Kotsubaki and Kotetsu’s screams, still see their mangled bodies in my sleep.”

God, that whole situation had been so fucked up right from the very beginning.

“But how did that whole mission on Iwashiro go downhill so quickly?” Ise asks.

“There were a lot of things that contributed,” Renji admits. “First of all, we were fresh, and it was literally our first mission into deep space. We didn’t have enough ammo on us either, and it didn’t help that the whole damn unit was so dysfunctional.”

“You mean like this one?” Ise asks dryly.

Renji snorts. “No, we’re a good kind of dysfunctional,” he tells her. “My previous unit… there was poor leadership. Poor behaviour from subordinates. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Sergeant Amagai just didn’t know how to be a good leader. He read from the manual for everything and left me in charge. So everyone started hating him and me in the process, even though I was admired by them at first. Some of them were making threats against me. Hell, we weren’t even supposed to go on that mission.”

“You weren’t?”

“No, we were supposed to be disbanded and sent off to other units, but then someone in the brass thought to just send us out on one last mission to see how it goes,” Renji says, shaking his head. “And look how that went.”

Ise looks at him in surprise. “Wait… you mean to tell me that someone sent an inexperienced, dysfunctional unit on the verge of being disbanded, with barely enough ammo and preparation, to an abandoned space station to fight against unknown creatures?” she asks.

Renji shrugs. “I’m a Marine. It’s my job to listen to orders and follow the mission,” he says. “I can’t question that kind of stuff, Ise.”

“But something’s not right about that,” she tells him. “You shouldn’t have gone on that mission. Someone must have pulled some strings, or else that whole disaster wouldn’t have happened.”

Renji frowns as he lets her words sink in. Now that he thinks about it, something really isn’t right about that whole situation. But he can’t be dwelling on it right now.

“I see your point, but I can’t think about it now,” he tells her. “Right now, we gotta focus on getting outta this place before it blows.”

Ise nods slowly. “Alright,” she says. “I’m gonna go check on Inoue-san, then.”

“Please do,” Renji says.

He watches as Ise picks up one of the pulse rifles and heads to the medlab, just as Sasakibe comes in.

“How are you feeling, Lieutenant?” Renji asks him.

“Alright, I suppose,” Sasakibe says. “Feels like one hell of a hangover, though.”

He glances down. “I… I never knew about your old unit. I caught a bit of your conversation with Ise, and she’s right. Your previous unit shouldn’t have been sent out on that mission,” he says. “I don’t know who sent you out there, or how they were able to, but we cannot let this just slip by.”

Renji closes his eyes. “I know something’s not right about it, but that’s the last thing on my mind right now,” he tells him. “What we need to focus on is getting everyone outta here alive. And besides… I’ve heard enough horror stories about people who’ve gotten into Weyland-Yutani’s bad books. I almost got discharged once. I don’t need to go through that kind of shit again.”

Sasakibe nods slowly. “Touché,” he says.

Right then, they hear Zaraki’s voice come through their headsets. _“The dropship is ready now,”_ he says. _“We’ll be heading down soon. How’s everyone holding up?”_

“We’re all alive, don’t worry,” Renji reassures. “We’ll be leaving when you give your signal.”

_“Good. We’re on our way now.”_

Renji smiles slightly. “Looks like we’ll be getting outta here soon, Lieutenant,” he says.

“Excellent. Let’s start preparing things then.”

* * *

Ise suddenly wakes up with a start. For a moment, she can’t remember where she is, but then she feels Inoue’s soft form in her arms and remembers.

She’d come into the medlab to check on Inoue and had found her sleeping under the cot, so she’d set the rifle on the cot, climbed underneath and cuddled up next to Inoue to console her. Ise can’t remember when she fell asleep, but when she checks her watch, she sees that an hour has passed.

Gently disengaging herself from Inoue, Ise is about to crawl out from beneath the cot when she glances up and freezes.

Inside the medlab, there are two stasis tubes. Their tops are hinged open, and the suspension fields are switched off.

And they are both completely empty.

Ice begins forming in Ise’s stomach. She can’t move or breathe in that moment, and her eyes search around frantically as she gauges the situation.

Bending down again, Ise gently shakes Inoue. “Wake up,” she whispers. “Inoue-san, wake up.”

Inoue stirs and wakes up. “Wha…? Where…?” she asks sleepily.

“Shh. Don’t move. We’re in trouble,” Ise continues whispering.

Inoue nods, now wide awake.

They listen for the slightest betrayal of movement in the darkness. Like for the scrabble of multiple legs across the polished floor. But the only sound right now is the hum of the space heater.

Ise reaches up and holds the underside of the cot as she slowly inches it away from the wall.

When the space is wide enough, Ise cautiously slides up between the wall and the edge of the cot, reaching for the rifle she’d left lying there.

Her heart drops when she sees nothing. The rifle’s gone.

Suddenly, a scuttling shape leaps towards her from the foot of the bed.

Ise ducks with a startled cry.

The vile creature hits the wall above her, its legs moving faster than lightning. Instinctively, Ise slams the cot against the wall, pinning the creature that’s merely inches above her face, but its tail and legs writhe fiercely as it emits a piercing squeal.

In a frenzied hurry, Ise pushes Inoue across the polished floor and scrambles from beneath the cot, flipping it over to trap the thing.

 _Oh my gosh…_ Ise thinks as she and Inoue back away, shuddering.

Ise’s eyes frantically scan around the shadowed room when she sees the Facehugger scuttle from beneath the cot and disappear under a back of cabinets in a blur.

Holding Inoue close, they hurry to the door, and Ise reaches out and hits the wall switch.

The door doesn’t open. It’s disabled from outside.

Ise tries the lights. Nothing.

She pounds on the door, but it’s merely a dull thunk.

She moves to the observation window, glancing desperately over her shoulder.

“Hey… Hey!” Ise shouts, pounding on the window.

“Help us!” Inoue cries, also pounding on the window.

But the lab is dark and empty. Ise whirls around when she hears that loathsome crawling across the floor.

Noticing the video surveillance camera, Ise steps in front of it, waving her arms in a circle. “Corporal! Corporal Abarai!” she shouts, desperately hoping to get someone’s attention.

“Help us, Abarai-kun!” Inoue shouts, also waving her arms.

They shout and wave at the camera for a few moments, but it’s no use. No one’s coming.

 _Goddammit…_ Desperate, Ise picks up a steel chair and slams it against the observation window. It simply bounces back from the high-impact material.

Ise almost screams in frustration and terror when she hears movement. She turns around frantically, trying to find the source as her panic rises.

But then she hears a sob. Turning around, she sees Inoue, all frozen in terror, her eyes filled with tears.

“Ise-nee-san…” she whimpers. “Please help…”

The simple ‘nee-san’ pierces through the fog in Ise’s mind, and she steadies herself. Carefully searching the room, Ise notices a lighter on top of a counter nearby, and she slowly reaches out for it, snatching it off the table and flicking it to make a flame.

Carefully, Ise holds the flame up to the temperature sensor of a fire sprinkler head.

Instantly, the sensor activates, and the sprinklers start spraying water throughout the room as an alarm starts blaring throughout the complex.

Ise and Inoue then huddle together under the spray, waiting for the Marines to come and free them.

“They’re coming, Inoue-san,” Ise reassures her. She looks around the room, trying to find any movement.

Suddenly, something leaps at Ise’s face.

Ise shrieks and topples to the floor and Inoue starts screaming and scrambling away as Ise yanks the vile parasite off her and throws it away.

The creature hits the wall, but it just scuttles towards Ise like it’s nothing.

Ise scrambles back desperately, knocking down various equipment in a frantic attempt to block the Facehugger’s path, clawing across the floor in a frenzy of motion. But it’s useless.

The Facehugger effortlessly scuttles over everything, then lunges at Ise.

“Ise-san!” Inoue cries.

Holding her hands up, Ise manages to block the odious Facehugger from her face, but its tail whips around her neck and begins to tighten. Ise turns her head side to side frantically as the parasite forces its visceral underside closer to her face, trying to force its tubule inside her mouth.

Ise can feel those vulgar finger-like legs brushing at her face, and water slides into her eyes, blinding her and making it impossible to get a grip on the parasite. She hears a scream from Inoue before something crashes into a wall.

It’s getting harder to breathe, and all Ise can do now is hope that the Marines come quickly.

* * *

The siren is ringing all over the complex, and upon seeing that it was coming from the medlab, Renji feels his stomach clench, so he and Sasakibe just rush to the medlab in the hopes that Orihime and Ise are not dead. As Renji and Sasakibe near the medlab, having been alerted in Operations, they’re joined by Bazz-B and Mila Rose, who have their guns in hand. They rush inside only to pause at the scene of chaos unfolding behind the observation window.

Ise is trying to fight off a Facehugger, desperately turning her face away from the vile creature, and Orihime is struggling to keep another one pinned to the wall with a cart.

“Shoot it out!” Renji shouts at Bazz-B before running back a few steps.

Bazz-B fires a couple of rounds into the observation window, weakening the glass.

Then Renji runs towards the window and jumps through it, diving into the room in a shower of glass fragments, and he’s almost instantly soaked through with water.

“Bazz-B!” Orihime cries out as Bazz-B climbs through the window.

“Holy shit!” Bazz-B rushes over to her.

Renji rushes over to Ise and immediately grabs the Facehugger, pulling at it and trying to ignore the sickening feeling of its thrashing legs as he reaches around and tries to pull it off Ise’s neck. But the thing just tightens its tail, and Ise is struggling to breathe now.

Behind him, he hears Bazz-B shout, “Jeez, girl, look out!”, before hearing the shots of a pulse rifle being fired.

Right then, Sasakibe and Mila Rose appear and help him out with wrestling the parasite away, just as Ise starts gasping desperately.They reach around Ise’s neck and pull at the thing’s tail together with Renji, and finally, _finally,_ its grip loosens, allowing them to unwind it from her neck.

Renji and Sasakibe grip the thrashing, shrieking Facehugger, while Mila Rose preps her pulse rifle. “Over there!” Renji shouts to her.

“Yeah!” Mila Rose shouts back.

“You ready?!”

“Yeah!”

“Now!” Renji and Sasakibe hurl the parasite into the corner.

Mila Rose opens fire on it. A few short bursts, and it’s cleanly destroyed.

The sprinklers and alarm shut off automatically, and Ise collapses, gasping for air and gagging slightly. Renji helps her sit up and turns to Bazz-B. “Bazz!” he calls.

“All clear!” Bazz-B says coming over as Orihime rushes over to both Renji and Ise. “I got the other one, it’s gone now.”

Renji holds both Ise and Orihime close, trying to console them as Ise struggles to catch her breath. Then, Ise speaks hoarsely, and what she says makes Renji freeze.

“Kurotsuchi… it was Kurotsuchi!”

* * *

After finding Kurotsuchi, they quite literally drag him back to Operations and throw him into a chair to confront him. And when Ise reveals that Kurotsuchi was the one who triggered the lockdown, any hope for a calm discussion is thrown out the window. Only a few minutes have passed and yet everyone is still buzzing on adrenaline.

Renji’s been pacing ever since they got back to Operations, and his temper is only holding on by the slimmest of threads. And he’s not the only one.

Ise’s straining to keep a firm grasp on her temper. Mila Rose is silent, but there’s a dangerous look in her eyes that Renji doesn’t want to cross. Sasakibe is standing still, but even he is appalled and furious.

Bazz-B, well… he had given up trying the minute he saved Orihime from the Facehugger, and there’s been a steady stream of swearing and threats against Kurotsuchi’s life since then.

“I say we grease this rat-fuck son of a bitch right now,” Bazz-B declares intensely, pointing his pulse rifle at Kurotsuchi’s head as he glares at him.

“It just doesn’t make any goddamn sense,” Renji says, still pacing.

“He figured that he could get an alien back through quarantine, if one of us was… impregnated… whatever you call it, and then frozen for the trip home. I suppose that’s why he triggered the lockdown,” Ise says. Every fiber of her being is accusing Kurotsuchi with absolute outrage. “Nobody would know about the embryos we were carrying… me and Inoue-san.”

Renji stops pacing. Something in his stomach clenches at the possibility of her horrifying theory. To think that a human being might do that to one of his own, and worse, to someone as young as Orihime…

Orihime is just watching everything with somber eyes, her damp hair plastered to her forehead and cheeks. Those serious, solemn eyes are so unsettling, as if she’d completely foreseen this betrayal from the moment Renji had pulled her out of the vents. Renji does not like seeing that look on her face.

“Wait a minute, now,” Renji realizes something. “We’d all know.”

Ise nods. “Yes,” she says. “The only way he could do it is if he sabotaged certain freezers on the way home… namely yours, perhaps even the rest of the unit. Then he could jettison the bodies and make up any story he liked.”

Renji’s eyes widen slightly, and ice forms in his stomach.

Bazz-B slowly shakes his head, barely hanging onto his fury. “Fuuuck…” His eyes are filled with pure rage. “He’s dead. You’re dog-meat, pal!” He harshly prods an icy-calm Kurotsuchi with his rifle.

But of course. It makes way too much sense for a Company man. Renji remembers all those horror stories he’s heard, so many damn horror stories of all the ways people have been fucked over by Weyland-Yutani, and he’s not gonna put killing an entire unit of Marines past someone as slimy as Kurotsuchi now.

Kurotsuchi just shakes his head. “Just listen to what you’re saying, Ise,” he says, his voice scornful. “It’s paranoid delusion, just pathetic.”

But those denials sound weak, and Renji raises an eyebrow. _Oh? You can’t handle a pulse rifle in your face, Mr. Company-man?_

“You know, Kurotsuchi?” Ise says, glaring at him. “I don’t know which species is worse. You don’t see those creatures fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.”

That’s it. Renji’s mind is made up. It’s not exactly a hard decision to make, not with all their lives on the line thanks to Kurotsuchi. But Ise has just made an easy decision even easier.

“Alright. It’s settled. We waste him,” Renji says decisively. With a savage grin, he adds a “no offense,” and as he hauls Kurotsuchi up onto his feet he can't help but think that  _this is gonna feel so goddamn good._

Sasakibe is all for it, and he’s aiming his pistol at Kurotsuchi. Mila Rose also rounds her smartgun on the bastard, and there’s no doubt where Bazz-B’s thoughts lie; he’s been ready to shoot Kurotsuchi in the face for a while now.

Surprisingly, it’s Ise who objects, grabbing onto Renji’s arms to stop him. “No, he’s gotta go back!”

Renji glances over his shoulder, about to ask “Why?”, when the lights go out, and the room suddenly goes black.

A few seconds later, the red emergency lights kick in, but no one moves for a moment. Then, Renji realizes something that’s going to haunt him for the rest of his life, no matter how short it may be.

“They cut the power…” Renji whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The confrontation of Kurotsuchi was pretty fun to write, as well as the hands-on instruction part. To be honest, Renji x Nanao is a crackship that I kinda like (I have quite a few Renji ships, including crackships, actually), so I just teased at it here. The next chapter is gonna be action-heavy, so do look forward to it~
> 
> Edit: For those who want to see a more sexy "what-if" scenario of the pulse rifle lesson, here's a Renji/Nanao fic I wrote: "Across the Stars" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18264422).
> 
> Let me know how I did :D Have a good one!


	8. Step On It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the aliens come, Renji and the others rush to escape the facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, the second-to-last chapter that's non-stop action! For this chapter, particularly the shooting and escape parts, I strongly recommend listening to "Ripley's Rescue" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk5G4Yhq3tU) from the _Aliens_ soundtrack. And for the dropship fight scene, I recommend listening to "Bishop's Countdown" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlzkGd7qaMY&t=88s), again from the soundtrack, specifically from 0:00-1:28.
> 
> That being said, I hope you enjoy~!

Renji’s words hang over the others as they register this new piece of chilling information.

“Whaddaya mean _they_ cut the power?!” Bazz-B demands. “How can they cut the power, man? They’re animals!”

“Ise, get started on lifting that lockdown! Inoue, stay close! Lieutenant, watch Kurotsuchi!” Renji orders. “Now, let’s get these trackers going.”

As Ise rushes to the lockdown panel and Sasakibe grabs both a pulse rifle and a flamethrower, Yadomaru’s voice comes in on their headsets.

 _“Come in, Abarai,”_ Yadomaru says.

“I’m here,” Renji responds.

_“We’re on our way to the landing bay tower.”_

“Just lifted the lockdown!” Ise says, punching the last key. “We got an hour now.”

Renji nods. “How much longer?”

 _“We should be there in about twenty minutes,”_ Kira tells him.

“Perfect. We’re on our way. Stand by.” Renji turns to the others, slinging a flamethrower over his shoulder along with his pulse rifle. “Let’s get outta here, now! To the landing bay tower!”

With their weapons in hand, they rush out of Operations and head straight for the landing bay tower in D-Block, all while keeping an eye on their motion trackers for any movement.

They’re only a little over halfway to D-Block when Renji hears their trackers beep. Glancing down, Renji sees a faint signal, and his eyes widen slightly.

Bazz-B glances down at his tracker. “Shit… they’re inside the perimeter,” he says.

“Don’t stop now! Keep going!” Renji tells them. “Come on!”

They keep running, but they keep an eye out at every dark corner to look for any movement. Bazz-B keeps on looking down at his tracker and is getting more nervous by the second.

“The signal’s weird…” Bazz-B says nervously. “Must be some interference… there’s movement all over the place.” He glances at the range counter. “Range twenty meters.”

“Let’s go!” Renji says, and they run faster.

“Seventeen meters…” Bazz-B counts down.

Renji and Sasakibe prepare the flamethrowers just in case. Their trackers are beeping like mad now, almost matching their heartbeats.

“They’ve learned,” Renji realizes. “They’ve cut the power and avoided the guns. They must’ve found another way in. Something we missed.”

“We didn’t miss anything,” Ise insists, sweat forming on her forehead.

“Fifteen meters!”

“I dunno, an acid hole in a duct, something under the floors, something that wasn’t on those plans, I don’t know!” Renji raises his voice slightly.

Sweat slides down Bazz-B’s temple. “Twelve meters. Man, this is a big fucking signal… ten meters,” he says.

“Let’s run for it!” Renji says urgently.

They rush to D-Block, but the beeping gets more and more frequent, Bazz-B keeps on announcing the distance, and the signal’s getting closer. They’re almost at D-Block when Bazz-B reads the tracker and announces, “Six meters!”

“Can’t be, that’s right where we are…” Ise whispers, horrified.

“It’s reading right, man!”

“Well, you’re not reading it right!” Renji retorts.

“Five meters. Four. What the hell?!”

Bazz-B looks at Renji and right then, it dawns on both of them at the same time in a cold, foreboding dread. Renji climbs onto a nearby table and raises a panel of the acoustic drop-ceiling. Warily, he shines his light inside.

Inside the panels is a soul-wrenching nightmare.

There are aliens moving. Lots of aliens.

They crawl like bats, upside down, clinging to the pipes and beams of the structural ceiling and not even touching the acoustic panels. They gleam hideously in the light as they claw their way forward, practically covering the ceiling of the hallway.

He jumps off the table, aiming his rifle at the ceiling with a yell.

“Run! Now!” Renji shouts, right as the ceiling explodes, raining debris as nightmarish silhouettes drop into the hallway en masse.

Orihime screams just as the Marines open fire on the creatures. Shrieks and roars mix in with the sounds of flamethrowers, smartgun, and pulse rifle shots. The creatures leap as quick as insects, yet they move with an unearthly grace that’s both powerful and terrifying.

“Get to the landing bay tower! Now!” Renji shouts over the noise.

Ise and Orihime run ahead while Renji and the others provide cover. However, to their surprise, Kurotsuchi doesn’t move. For a moment, Renji wonders if he’s scared, but he gets a brief look at his face.

To his shock, Kurotsuchi looks absolutely fascinated with the creatures. “So this is it…” he says, his voice filled with glee. “The ultimate life form.”

“Kurotsuchi! Come on, get the fuck outta here!” Renji snarls.

Kurotsuchi simply glances askance at him. “You still don’t know what you’re dealing with, don’t you?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.”

Suddenly, Kurotsuchi is impaled viciously by an alien’s tail, and blood sprays everywhere. Renji stares in shock for a moment, but then he sees the expression on Kurotsuchi’s face is not one of pain, but one of absolute delight as he’s dragged away.

“Abarai! Come on, forget about him!” Mila Rose’s voice snaps him out of his disgust, and Renji fires some more rounds at the creatures before running after everyone else.

The aliens’ hideous shrieking is getting louder, and like huge insects, they’re gaining on them.

 _“We’re nearing the landing bay tower,”_ Yadomaru announces into their headsets.

“On our way!” Renji says urgently as they run into D-Block, the aliens still pursuing them.

Up ahead, Renji sees Orihime grab Ise’s hand and pull her to the left. “Come on! This way!” Orihime calls.

Renji and the others follow Orihime and Ise down the hallways that just don’t seem to end. They keep on firing at the aliens in pursuit.

“Where’s Kurotsuchi?!” Ise asks.

“He got himself killed by the aliens and enjoyed it, the sick bastard!” Renji shouts over the noise, and he sees a look of disgust on Ise’s face.

Indeed, Kurotsuchi’s final words still echo in Renji’s ears. _I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies._

Renji snarls to himself. He’s gonna prove that asshole wrong. He’s gonna get everyone out of here alive. And then they’ll see who has the last laugh.

“You ain't seen nothin' yet, Kurotsuchi Mayuri... Just you wait, I'll get everyone outta here...” Renji growls to himself.

Bazz-B is shooting aliens left and right, shouting and swearing at them like some kind of warrior. “Die, motherfuckers! Come and get it, you assholes!” he shouts as he fires several rounds. “Oh, you want some of this?! Yeah?! Well, fuck you too! Fuck you!”

“Bazz, come on!” Renji shouts at him, pulling him away.

“Here’s the landing bay tower!” Orihime says urgently as she slams a button to open the door.

Ise runs into the red-lit stairwell first, holding tightly onto her pulse rifle before Orihime scrambles in behind. Renji, Bazz-B, Mila Rose, and Sasakibe follow on rearguard, wielding their weapons at the ready. Sasakibe hits the button to close the door, but just as it slides shut, a skeletal, muted-black hand stops the door before tearing through it as if it’s foil.

“Go! Now! Just keep running up!” Orihime shouts.

Ise starts running up the stairs and Orihime follows. Renji and Bazz-B also follow while Sasakibe and Mila Rose provide cover, climbing backwards up the stairs.

 _“We’re almost at the landing bay tower. Due to the debris, we’ll stay in a hover and help you guys get in,”_ Zaraki tells them as they're running up the first flight. _“You might wanna hurry, though. The processing station’s starting to overload. In a few minutes, this place'll go up in a cloud the size of Japan itself."_

“Alright, stand by,” Renji says hurriedly.

An alien screeches at him as it chases them up the stairs, but Renji opens fire on it with a harsh “fuck you!”, emptying a round and feeling a grim satisfaction at the alien's shrieks. Hastily, Renji empties the magazine, grabs another round and slaps it in tight before firing at another alien.

They continue running up the flights of stairs, the aliens still in pursuit even as they open fire on them.

As they reach the third flight of stairs, one of the creatures lunges at Mila Rose, but she’s got no time for it. Letting out a warrior-like cry, Mila Rose slams her smartgun into the alien, knocking it back down the stairs.

 _“¡Que te den, puta madre!”_ Mila Rose shouts, opening fire on it with her smartgun.

The alien shrieks as it’s destroyed in a shower of blood.

“Let’s go! Now!” Sasakibe shouts.

The four Marines bolt up the stairs, still firing at the aliens in pursuit with rifles and flamethrowers.

“Is that all ya got, you bastards?! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” Bazz-B shouts at the aliens as they near the fifth flight of stairs. “Lemme blow you all away!”

He fires some grenades from the grenade launcher at the aliens, and the Marines bolt for it right as the grenades explode, taking out several of the creatures. Yet there are still more in pursuit.

Finally, after what feels like forever, they reach the entrance to the landing bay.

Orihime runs forward and slams the button to open the doors.

Outside, the dropship is hovering above the landing bay, the airstairs near the cockpit already deployed.

Renji rushes forward. “Come on!” he shouts, effortlessly lifting Orihime up in one arm, throwing her over his shoulder and running outside.

Inside the dropship, Zaraki is waiting at the top of the airstair. “Sarge!” Renji shouts, relief washing over him. “Get her in there!”

“On it!” Zaraki shouts back, grabbing Orihime as she reaches up for him and pulling her inside. “Sit tight, girl!”

Orihime obeys, rushing to a seat and strapping herself in.

Ise comes sprinting next, and Renji helps her up into the dropship, where Zaraki pulls her inside as well. Ise quickly rushes over to Orihime and sits down next to her, also strapping herself in.

Quickly, the rest of the Marines follow. Mila Rose appears to have ditched her combat harness and smartgun, and she is now carrying Sasakibe’s pulse rifle. Sasakibe quickly turns and shuts the door before running to the dropship.

“Marines! We are leaving! Come on! Now! Get your asses here!” Renji shouts urgently as Mila Rose, Bazz-B, and Sasakibe come running.

First, Renji helps Mila Rose up into the dropship, where Zaraki helps her climb in. Then he helps Sasakibe up, and then Bazz-B.

“Where’s Kurotsuchi?” Zaraki asks.

“The bastard’s dead,” Bazz-B tells him. “Don’t bother.”

“Come on, Abarai!” Zaraki shouts.

Renji turns to climb onto the airstairs when suddenly, a group of aliens tear open the door and run onto the landing bay, screeching at Renji.

“Shit!” Renji hastily steps up onto the airstairs and opens fire on the creatures.

“Get in here, now! Don’t bother!” Mila Rose shouts at him.

“Step on it, Yadomaru!” Zaraki shouts.

 _“On it!”_ Yadomaru shouts back.

Renji feels the dropship slowly starting to lift up as he gets inside. His hair, which has slipped out of its ponytail, blows around his face in the wind.

But right then, one of the creatures leaps up and grips onto the airstairs just as they’re taking off, clambering up until it’s in the doorway of the dropship, much to everyone’s horror.

Orihime screams and Ise is frozen in shock.

“Get the goddamn door!” Zaraki shouts as he, Mila Rose, Sasakibe, and Bazz-B try and slide the door shut. But the door won't budge; the alien's grip is too strong.

The creature hisses viciously as it wedges its head through the opening, parting its drooling jaws open as it screeches at them. For a moment, Renji just stares at the alien.

And then, amidst the panic, amidst the screaming and swearing, something inside of Renji just snaps. _I’ve had enough of these bastards._ He thinks to himself.  

“Stand back, now.” Renji’s voice is fierce and snarling, and everyone steps back in surprise at his tone.

Right now, in this moment, Renji is almost like a berserker warrior. His free-flowing hair flies wildly around him in the wind, and his eyes burn with fury, fear, and hate. His mouth is curled into a snarl, and he looks like he’s about to tear the alien apart, limb from limb. And with those sharp black tattoos on his forehead and arms, Renji looks almost demonic. It’s a sharp contrast to how gentle and calm he normally is, and it’s actually a little bit scary to see.

Glaring fiercely, Renji grabs his flamethrower and aims it at the alien with one hand before unsheathing his pump-action shotgun from his back with the other hand.

The alien hisses at him, but Renji doesn’t flinch. Snarling lowly, Renji pulls the flamethrower’s trigger and shoots a torrent of flames at the alien.

It screeches in rage as it’s forced outside, but it refuses to let go of the sides. The dropship is flying higher and higher, and it’s only a matter of time before they enter into space.

“Aren’t you a stubborn bastard?” Renji mutters through gritted teeth.

He has to be careful, or else it could spell trouble for everyone. He can’t let the acid blood splatter inside, so the pulse rifle is out of the question. Neither can he continuously shoot fire at the thing.

Renji continues to sporadically shoot jets of fire at the alien, moving closer to it as he does so. And then, when he’s right in front of the creature, he watches as it slowly parts its jaws, revealing its inner mouth that is ready to strike. But Renji's quicker. He slides the forend, chambering a round, and shoves the barrel of the shotgun between the alien’s jaws.

“Smile, motherfucker.” He pulls the trigger.

With a loud bang, the alien’s head shatters with that same shriek, and it’s flung off the dropship for good.

Then, with a grunt of effort, Renji starts pulling at the door, so the Marines rush to help him. They’re almost in space now.

“Punch it, Yadomaru!” Renji shouts.

The dropship engines fire up just as they manage to slide the door forward, and they fly up and away towards space.

And just as they slam the door shut, the processor below explodes in a hot dome of energy that bursts up through the cloud layer and slams the ship with a shockwave, tossing it forward.

Renji holds on tight as the ship shakes for a moment… and then it continues climbing towards the stars.

Loosening his grip on the door, Renji slowly sinks to the ground, his body unclenching and his heartbeat becoming steadier. When he looks at his shotgun, he sees that the barrel has melted away thanks to the acid. He can never use it again.

But it doesn’t matter now.

“I got you…” he whispers, closing his eyes with a smile. “You sons of bitches.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the most stressful, yet fun chapter to write, especially the action scenes. And of course, it's not an 80's action movie love letter without some one-liners in there!
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


	9. Dream Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the aliens defeated, Renji prepares for the three-week trip home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'd said that the trip to LV-352 had taken seventeen weeks, but I changed it to three weeks because seventeen weeks seemed a bit too long.
> 
> That being said, here's the last chapter. Thank you for all the kind reviews you left, but believe me, this series is far from over. I hope you all enjoy~!

A short while later, the dropship returns to the _Gonryomaru,_ entering from the airlock into the drop-bay. Steam blasts from the cooling vents beside the engine as the clearance lights sweep the chamber.

For a moment, there’s silence in the dropship as the engines slowly power down. Then, Bazz-B is the first one to break it with a cheer.

“Whoo! We made it, baby! We’re alive!” he cheers.

 _“Welcome back, Marines,”_ Yadomaru says, and there’s a smile in her voice. A few moments later, the cockpit door opens and Yadomaru and Kira step inside the cargo bay.

“You guys doing okay?” Kira asks. “We heard the noise up in the cockpit, but we didn’t know what exactly was going on.”

“Abarai here fought off one of those aliens and shot it out the dropship!” Bazz-B tells them, still sounding thrilled.

Mila Rose nods. “It was fucking badass,” she says. “He blew its brains out with his shotgun right before we entered space.”

“Goddamn,” Yadomaru raises her eyebrows in pleasant surprise.

Renji just looks at the smoking, half-melted husk of a shotgun in his hand. “It was worth it,” he says. “And it served me well.”

Sasakibe speaks next, his voice sincere and impressed. “You did well, Corporal,” he says. “You faced your worst nightmares head-on and displayed such impressive leadership skills even when the situation was dire.”

Renji doesn’t know what to say. Hearing the Lieutenant speak so highly of him makes his heart warm, and he just smiles and looks away somewhat shyly. “Thank you, Lieutenant,” he says. “But it’s not just me. Bazz, Mila Rose, Ise, and Orihime… they were all brave. They all did well.”

“Well, of course,” Sasakibe agrees. “Everyone did well on Hokutan. But I am serious, Corporal Abarai. I’ve never seen such bravery from anyone before now.”

“But-”

“Hey, the Lieutenant’s praisin’ you! Don’t sell yourself short, Abarai!” Zaraki says, clapping Renji’s shoulder.

“I… I guess you’re right.” Renji smiles. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Zaraki just grins at them. “Let’s get outta here, then,” he says. He then gets up and slides the door open, and they’re all met with a pleasant surprise.

Waiting outside in the bay are the rest of the Marines, who almost instantly break into cheers when the door slides open.

“Welcome back, you guys!”

“Come on out, let’s see ‘em!”

“Hey, hey! Back off, let ‘em get out first!” Zaraki shouts, but there’s a smile on his face as he, Sasakibe, Yadomaru, and Kira get out of the dropship.

Renji steps out first, and helps Ise and Orihime out of the ship. Then Bazz-B gets out, declaring, “we’re back!” triumphantly, and then Mila Rose gets out and runs straight to Muguruma, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.

“Whoa!” Muguruma looks surprised, but he hugs her back with a smile. “Good ta see you again, Mila Rose.”

Renji chuckles. Yeah, those two definitely have something going on between them.

“What happened to Kurotsuchi?” Soifon asks.

“Son of a bitch is dead,” Mila Rose tells her. “He got killed by the aliens. And good riddance to him!”

“So, what the hell happened in the facility?” Hisagi asks with a grin. “You’d better tell us all about it.”

“First, let’s get something to eat,” Renji says. “I dunno ‘bout you, but I’m pretty hungry.”

“Yeah, let’s get something to eat first, and then we’ll tell you about it,” Bazz-B chimes in.

“One last meal, then we’ll get ready for cryosleep, alright?” Zaraki calls. “Come on, sweethearts! Let’s get movin’!”

* * *

Dinner is no different from breakfast. It’s the same kind of ration meal that doesn’t look too appealing but tastes fairly decent. And as always, the mess hall is filled with conversations and joking around, but there’s also an air of relief among them.

In addition, Ise, Sasakibe, and Orihime sit with them for dinner. Orihime is scarfing down her food like there’s no tomorrow, and Renji feels his heart ache slightly. She must’ve been starving, especially since she’s not even concerned about how the food tastes.

Ise takes a drink of water before she speaks. “When we get back, I’m turning in my resignation form,” she says. “I never want to work for Weyland-Yutani ever again.”

“So what will you do?” Renji asks between bites of his meal.

“I might go independent,” Ise suggests. “Either that, or I’ll work at my alma mater: Nagoya University.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Renji then glances at Orihime, who has slowed down a little bit. “And what will you do when we get back, Orihime?”

Orihime takes a long drink of water before responding. “I don’t know yet,” she says. “I’ll have to see whether or not I need to redo my internship first.”

“So, you guys gonna tell us what happened back there or what?” Madarame asks.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re getting to it,” Mila Rose tells him.

Renji, Bazz-B, and Mila Rose take turns in sharing the story of what happened at the facility, and they made sure not to leave anything out.

“That bastard Kurotsuchi was the one who set off the lockdown,” Bazz-B says, tensing up as he remembers. “The asshole wanted to bring back one of those aliens with us for bioweapons or some shit like that.”

“The fuck?! Was he stupid or something?!” Iba looks disbelieving. “How the fuck can he want to bring back one of those bastards?!”

“Anyone who thinks they can harness those creatures as weapons are delusional,” Kira says. “I may not know much about ‘em, but even I know that they can’t be controlled.”

“Damn straight,” Renji agrees.

“How’d you guys find out about it?” Soifon asks.

Ise sighs. “I saw security camera feed of him activating the lockdown,” she says. “The nerve of him! To trap us all in a facility with aliens that have killed so many people… and then he trapped Orihime and me in the medlab with the Facehuggers!”

“Damn, seriously?” Hisagi asks.

“Yeah, he did,” Renji says darkly. “We managed to get in and kill the Facehuggers before they got ‘em.”

“That’s why I’m resigning,” Ise says. “I’ve had enough of Weyland-Yutani.”

“Well, good riddance to that bastard,” Zaraki says. “He endangered my men, and anyone who does that will regret it.”

“So then how’d you guys get out?” Muguruma asks.

Bazz-B grins. “I was waitin’ for you to ask that!”

Then he launches into the story, not telling it straight as always, but Renji has to admit, he makes it a hell of a lot more entertaining.

“And then one of ‘em tries to get Mila Rose while we’re in the stairwell at the landing bay tower, but then she slams it back down the stairs with her smartgun and shoots it up while shouting in Spanish and it’s just fuckin’ badass, man!”

Muguruma smirks proudly at Mila Rose. “Nice one,” he says, giving her a fist bump. “What’d you tell it?”

“I said, ‘Up yours, motherfucker’ in Spanish,” Mila Rose tells him, returning the smirk. “But then I had to ditch my smartgun and combat harness ‘cause I ran out of ammo and it was weighing me down.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout that. It’ll get replaced,” Muguruma reassures.

“Then I shoot some grenades at ‘em and take out a lot of ‘em, and then we’re runnin’ to the dropship. Abarai’s gettin’ everyone inside, but then after he gets inside, one of the aliens tries to come after us as we’re takin’ off, and you should’ve been there, man! Abarai fought that alien, and it was fuckin’ epic!”

Renji blushes slightly and looks down at his tray as Bazz-B continues telling everyone about the fight.

“Abarai’s just lookin’ like a demon, man! He has a flamethrower in one hand, and his shotgun in the other, and he’s blasting the alien with the flamethrower, but it’s not letting go ‘cause it’s a stubborn fuck. But then Abarai gets in front of it, shoves the shotgun into the alien’s mouth, and then says, ‘Smile, motherfucker’ and blows its brains out before slamming the door shut! Fuckin’ badass, man! Fuckin’ badass!”

“Oh, shut up, dumbass…” Renji mumbles shyly. “Now you’re just exaggerating.”

“Oh, come on! It was pretty badass!” Mila Rose tells him. “Don’t be so humble all the time, Abarai!”

“Dude, that’s epic!” Madarame praises. “Man, I wish I could’ve seen that!”

Renji shakes his head slightly. “I was pretty scared in that moment, actually,” he admits honestly. “But then, something just snapped inside of me. I was done being scared of those aliens, and I was ready to just kill it. I wasn’t going to lose anyone to those things. And then the adrenaline just took over, I guess.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Corporal,” Sasakibe tells him. “Again, you faced your biggest fear head-on. I wouldn’t expect you to just confront that alien like it was nothing.”

Renji ducks his head again. “If that’s how you feel, sir, then… okay,” he says.

“I meant what I said,” Sasakibe continues. “You’re damn good Marines, all of you.” He then turns to Renji. “You’re definitely going to get a medal for this, Corporal. Perhaps even an Order of the Noble Sakura. I don’t think a lot of men who went through what you did would have the balls to risk that situation again to save their unit.”

Again, Renji is stunned.

An Order of the Noble Sakura? That’s the highest and most prestigious personal armed service decoration in the Gotei Colonial Marine Corps, awarded to Marines who have distinguished themselves by acts of valour. It’s even presented by General Kuchiki Byakuya himself, who, at thirty-six years of age, is the youngest and most-esteemed General in the Corps.

Renji doesn’t know if he’s truly worthy of that kind of award.

“Wow…” he mumbles. “I… I dunno what to say.”

“You’ve earned yourself that medal, Abarai,” Zaraki reassures him. “Don’t sell yourself so short.”

Renji just ducks his head slightly. “If you say so, I guess.”

Right then, Akon enters the mess hall and approaches their table. “Lieutenant? Sergeant Zaraki? I’ve just started preparing the cryosleep chamber for the trip back, and I’ve set our course for Gateway Station,” he tells them. “We’ll be leaving in a few hours.”

Zaraki nods. “Thanks, Akon,” he says. “Alright, sweethearts! We’re gonna hit the cryo pods soon, so finish up quickly and go shower ‘cause seriously, you all reek!”

Renji laughs along with everyone else.

* * *

The hot water has never felt more relieving. Every single part of Renji’s body is sore and he hadn’t even realized it until he’d stepped under the hot spray of the shower. It’s not just his arms and legs, but smaller parts hurt too, like his fingernails. The inside of his elbows. Hell, his _eyelids_  are hurting too.

Renji cleans himself thoroughly, trying to get rid of that filthy feeling from being in the nest. He also washes his hair out twice, and a short while later, Renji feels much cleaner and a little bit more human. After brushing his teeth and taking care of other toiletries, Renji slips on a pair of boxers, combs his slightly damp hair, and ties it into a braid.

He’s ready for cryosleep now. Hell, he’s been ready to sleep for quite some time now.

“How you feelin’, Abarai?” Hisagi asks as he rubs a towel over his face.

“A little more human,” Renji says. “But mostly tired. I don’t know ‘bout you, but I’m ready for a nice long three-week nap.”

“Amen to that,” Hisagi laughs.

Renji steps out of the shower facilities and heads to the cryosleep chambers. Already, some of the others are climbing into their pods. Soifon, Yadomaru, Ise, and Mila Rose are only in tank-tops and underwear, while the guys are all in their boxers.

As Renji approaches his pod, he sees Orihime coming up to him, a small smile on her face. She’s dressed in a clean pair of underwear, and in one of Mila Rose’s shirts, which is a little big on her. She also looks a lot cleaner, having had a nice hot shower, and her hair looks much neater now.

“You ready to sleep?” Renji asks her, smiling softly.

Orihime nods. “Yeah,” she says. “Can… Can I dream, Abarai-kun?” Her eyes shine hopefully.

Renji chuckles softly. “Yeah. I think we both can, kiddo,” he tells her.

A bright smile crosses her face. And right then, Orihime throws her arms around him in a hug.

With a soft chuckle and a gentle smile, Renji hugs her back and presses a kiss on the top of her head before pulling away.

“Sleep tight, Orihime,” he says.

“You too, Abarai-kun,” Orihime says before going to her cryopod.

Renji climbs into his cryopod, adjusting his dog tags as he lies down, and then presses the button to lower the lid of his pod. When the lid closes, he’s comfortably lying down.

“Sweet dreams,” Renji whispers as he closes his eyes.

Sleep quickly washes over him, and for the first time in a long time, Renji allows himself to dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, "Bug Hunt" is finished. Next up is "White Nights", which will follow the aftermath of this mission as Renji tries to cope with his PTSD and come to terms with the fact that he's going to be getting a medal for his bravery on this mission.
> 
> It was a lot of fun writing this story, and I can't wait to get started on "White Nights".
> 
> Let me know how I did :) Have a good one!


End file.
